Here’s how I did a simple example using the code in the Codex page http://codex.wordpress.org/Widgetizing_Themes
1. Copy the code
<?php
/**
* Register our sidebars and widgetized areas.
*
*/
function arphabet_widgets_init() {
register_sidebar( array(
'name' => 'Home right sidebar',
'id' => 'home_right_1',
'before_widget' => '<div>',
'after_widget' => '</div>',
'before_title' => '<h2 class="rounded">',
'after_title' => '</h2>',
) );
}
add_action( 'widgets_init', 'arphabet_widgets_init' );
?>
into the file functions.php in the folder of your child theme. If you don’t have functions.php already in the folder with your child theme files, simply create an empty file and put the code above into it.
2. Change the line
'before_widget' => '<div>',
to
'before_widget' => '<div id="arphabet">',
[It doesn’t matter what you call the ID; you just need something to be able to refer to this area later.]
3. Copy the header.php file from the twentyeleven folder to your child folder. Edit it to put the lines from the Codex article.
<?php
if ( dynamic_sidebar('home_right_1') ) :
else :
?>
<?php endif; ?>
just before the line
<?php get_search_form(); ?>
4. Now edit style.css in your child theme to do something reasonable with the div you’re creating with the code above. Since you talked about putting it near the top of the page, I just used the CSS for the search form and modified it slightly:
#branding #arphabet {
position: absolute;
top: 3.8em;
right: 30.6%;
text-align: right;
}
[The “right: 30.6%;” makes this box sit to the left of the search form.]
5. Finally go to your Admin panel > Appearance > Widgets. You should see a widget area over on the right labeled “Home right sidebar”. I dragged a text box widget over to that and added a header and a bit of text, and clicked Save.
Then the text I entered into the widget appeared to the left of the search form in the header.
Summary: So along with functions.php and header.php in your child theme folder, it’s likely you’ll need corresponding changes in style.css, and the code you put into functions.php will need to lay the groundwork for those style.css changes. I’m not the one to help you with fine tuning the CSS. If you do get it “almost” working you may want to open another incident and share a link to your site with a comment about what’s not working to get CSS suggestions. But I hope this at least gets you started with a new widget area at the top of your page.
