New Multi-Column Page Template

That sounds great, like the perfect thing I’d want to do.

I should say though that I disabled sidebars throughout my theme (All the pages and posts take up the whole screen-“wide”), so will these code snippets override that certain function? And will I be able to control these new widgets from the “Manage > Pages” section or the “Design > Widgets” section of the admin panel?

I’m still using the headers and footers though, so no differences there.

Also, I wanted to make sure I’m adding this code into the right places, as when I tried to update my functions.php file, it gave my entire administration panel parsing errors (probably because I entered into the wrong place). So does the first block of page code replace my entire welcome.php file? And where is the appropriate place to enter the second block within functions.php? (As I don’t want to get errors again.)

(I totally hear you about the household chores to, website administration is 100X better :).)

The code which you posted earlier “is” what I put in my functions.php, and it gave the admin errors, so what’s the code I’m suppose to ditch? As I said, I want to make sure I put your code in the right place within the functions.php file.

My theme still has sidebars, but I just turned them off for my posts and pages (my theme gives you an option to do that).

I placed your first code block into my welcome.php file, so I’m pretty sure that’s working OK, but I can’t tell for certain (or edit anything) until I get my functions.php file correct.

Also, my site’s link is on my member page’s website field. And I’m using the royale 1.3 WP theme:
http://www.onehertz.com/portfolio/wordpress/

Well, I thought all sidebars use widgets by default, so yeah, either way, mine does use widgets already. I found this first line of code in my functions.php specifically:

<?php
  if (function_exists('register_sidebar')) {
    register_sidebar();
    register_sidebar();
    register_sidebar(array('name'=>'Royale Top'));
    register_sidebar(array('name'=>'Royale Bottom'));
  }
  load_theme_textdomain('royale');

So maybe I’m suppose to edit this and integrate the new sidebar you posted somehow, rather than just flat-out adding to it.

Thanks, I’m not having any errors on the admin side anymore. I’ve spent an hour or two trying to get this welcome.php page I created to work properly, but it’s always giving my homepage syntax errors.

Here’s my original page template, which works fine:

<?php
	get_header();
	$alwayssidebars = get_option('royale_always_show_sidebars');
	if ($alwayssidebars) {
		if (get_option('royale_sidebar1_left')) include (TEMPLATEPATH . '/sidebar.php');
		if (get_option('royale_3columns') && get_option('royale_sidebar2_left')) {
			include (TEMPLATEPATH . '/sidebar2.php');
		}
	}
?>
	<td id="content" class="<?php echo ($alwayssidebars ? 'narrow' : 'wide'); ?>column">

    <?php if (have_posts()) : while (have_posts()) : the_post(); ?>
		<div class="post" id="post-<?php the_ID(); ?>">
		<h2><?php the_title(); ?></h2>
			<div class="entry">
				<?php the_content('<p class="serif">'. __('Read the rest of this page','royale') .' &raquo;</p>'); ?>

				<?php link_pages('<p><strong>'. __('Pages','royale') .':</strong> ', '</p>', 'number'); ?>

			</div>
			<div style="clear: both;"></div>
		</div>
	  <?php endwhile; endif; ?>
	<?php edit_post_link(__('Edit this page','royale'), '<p>', '</p>'); ?>

	</td>

<?php
	if ($alwayssidebars) {
		if (!get_option('royale_sidebar1_left')) include (TEMPLATEPATH . '/sidebar.php');
		if (get_option('royale_3columns') && !get_option('royale_sidebar2_left')) {
			include (TEMPLATEPATH . '/sidebar2.php');
		}
	}

	get_footer();
?>

And here’s an example of what I’ve tried:

<?php

/*
Template Name: Welcome Page
*/
?>

<?php
	get_header();
	$alwayssidebars = get_option('royale_always_show_sidebars');
	if ($alwayssidebars) {
		if (get_option('royale_sidebar1_left')) include (TEMPLATEPATH . '/sidebar.php');
		if (get_option('royale_3columns') && get_option('royale_sidebar2_left')) {
			include (TEMPLATEPATH . '/sidebar2.php');
		}
	}
?>

<div id="widecontent">
<div id="col-left">
<?php if ( !function_exists('dynamic_sidebar')
|| !dynamic_sidebar('col-left') ) : ?>
</div><!-- /col-left -->
<div id="col-right">
<?php if ( !function_exists('dynamic_sidebar')
|| !dynamic_sidebar('col-right') ) : ?>
</div><!-- /col-right -->
<div class="clearer"></div>
</div><!-- /widecontent -->

<?php
	if ($alwayssidebars) {
		if (!get_option('royale_sidebar1_left')) include (TEMPLATEPATH . '/sidebar.php');
		if (get_option('royale_3columns') && !get_option('royale_sidebar2_left')) {
			include (TEMPLATEPATH . '/sidebar2.php');
		}
	}

	get_footer();
?>

It seems like no matter where I place that code within my new template, I get syntax errors. Is there anything I seem to be missing to display these new sidebars properly?

Alright, cool.

I’m not using any sidebars besides the new ones you created for the template, so what exactly is the code that shouldn’t “be there”?

Sidebar code from the headers and footers? (Because I tried removing it, to no avail.)

Or fro the functions.php? (Because I don’t want to go into editing certain parts I’m not sure with, which’ll probably give admin errors again too.)

Well, I already tried adding just the code you gave me:

<?php

/*
Template Name: Welcome Page
*/
?>

<div id="widecontent">
<div id="col-left">
<?php if ( !function_exists('dynamic_sidebar')
|| !dynamic_sidebar('col-left') ) : ?>
</div><!-- /col-left -->
<div id="col-right">
<?php if ( !function_exists('dynamic_sidebar')
|| !dynamic_sidebar('col-right') ) : ?>
</div><!-- /col-right -->
<div class="clearer"></div>
</div><!-- /widecontent -->

Then I tried as you just suggested now:

<?php

/*
Template Name: Welcome Page
*/
?>

<?php
	get_header();
	$alwayssidebars = get_option('royale_always_show_sidebars');
	if ($alwayssidebars) {
		if (get_option('royale_sidebar1_left')) include (TEMPLATEPATH . '/sidebar.php');
		if (get_option('royale_3columns') && get_option('royale_sidebar2_left')) {
			include (TEMPLATEPATH . '/sidebar2.php');
		}
	}
?>

<div id="widecontent">
<div id="col-left">
<?php if ( !function_exists('dynamic_sidebar')
|| !dynamic_sidebar('col-left') ) : ?>
</div><!-- /col-left -->
<div id="col-right">
<?php if ( !function_exists('dynamic_sidebar')
|| !dynamic_sidebar('col-right') ) : ?>
</div><!-- /col-right -->
<div class="clearer"></div>
</div><!-- /widecontent -->

And both still get syntax errors, specifically lines like this:

Parse error: syntax error, unexpected $end in /home/username/public_html/lightningshock/wp-content/themes/royale-10/welcome.php on line 29

Hmmm, just seems odd that mine still get syntax errors, could it have something to do with being connected to the main index template php file, or maybe sidebar.php not reading something. I’m not sure, I’m kind of tired at the moment so I’m just thinking of other possible areas of my theme conflicting or something.

Thanks for all the help so far, Joni :).