
Widget Header - Image Before
Today, I will be explaining how to get a background image for your widgets for Thesis theme. This is a very simple technique that anyone can do. Please make a back up of your custom.css file.
From the image attached (Before), you can see my donations widget.
Notice the widget header (tag <h3>) has a diffent colour font to the background, this can be done by reading my past post on Thesis Customizations – Unique Tips. It is also very easy to do, just takes a few seconds to see your changes.
What we are going to do is make an image the background of the widget header, sounds easy right. Well, it is
With just a few seconds you can achieve this.
The first thing is to get your image button, you will have to create it yourself or you might have one.
I have choosen this image for my background. It has a piggy money bank with some notes and coins next to it. Although I made it a green colour, it looks very plain. I guess this is just an example so it’s ok ![]()
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You will be able to change the the following:
- font size
- font name
- font normal or bold
- font colour
- height of the image for the header
- and the image itself
There are a few options for you to look at and you might have to play around depending on your settings.
If I want to replace all widget headers with this back image, then I would use the following code:
.custom li.widget h3 {font-family: Comic Sans MS; font-weight: bold; color: #FFFFFF; font-size: 1.5em; height: 45px; background: url('/images/widget_img_donations2.png') no-repeat; padding:13px 20px 0;}
If you want to get a specific widget then it becomes a bit more technical:
BUT don’t worry, it’s still easy. You will need to view your source code of your site. For this purpose, I have choosen to chage the donations widget. I will have to search in my source code where the wording is and find the widgets class id. Once I have that, it’s easy.
The image below shows the class id as text-453310734, it’s highlighted with red. Yours could be different depending on which widget you are going to change.

Widget Header - Source Code
The only difference between changing all and just a certain widget is the class id, before the curly bracket. The rest would be identical.
.custom li#text-453310734 h3 {font-family: Comic Sans MS; font-weight: bold; color: #FFFFFF; font-size: 1.5em; height: 45px; background: url('/images/widget_img_donations2.png') no-repeat; padding:13px 20px 0;}
The image below shows you the end result of what it should look like. You can always change the the image loacation if you want, the choice is yours.

- Widget Header – Image After
Final Thought
I hope this has helped you understand Thesis more and what it is cappible of. I would like to hear feedback if some tried it and if it worked for you or not.




















{ 16 comments }
Nice tutorial! Anything that helps people learn how to hack and customize their own theme is a great thing in my mind – losing the fear of touching code can really give bloggers some powerful abilities.
Barbara Ling, Virtual Coach´s last blog ..How to make and write a Provocative ebook Table of Contents TOC
@Barbara – yes, bloggers have to be confident about making changes and seeing the results.
Thanks for sharing Thesis customization tuts once again… I guess searching images for your sidebar content is a difficult one…
Compute Live´s last blog ..Rearm and Extend Office 2010 Activation Grace Period for Free 180 Days Usage
@Compute Live – you could create your own ones. Try iconfinder.net for cool icons
This is wonderful tutorial of Thesis theme.You can trained new bloggers and thesis lover fast.
Surender Sharma´s last blog ..How to Integrate Flickr Album on Your Wordpress Blog
@Surender – thanks man, means a lot.
I am amazed at your knowledge of Thesis. Everytime I read your tutorial, I come one step closer to making the leap. Once I get a little time, I will probably make the switch.
BTW, thanks for the surprise in my ec account, much appreciated!
Tycoon Blogger´s last blog ..Win Cash and Prizes for voting for me
@Tycoon – I finally made the choice and left Entrecard. I tried it and dropping is not me at this stage, I feel my time is better spent doing other things.
Don’t worry about the surprise, I gave out 11,000 EC out to people.
Hey Great tutorial George. This will come very handy

Thesis customization service´s last blog ..Get Most out of Feed Burner Free Email Subscription Offer
@Harsh – hey, milk that keyword
Cool tutorial! Customizing the header of widgets will make a normal thesis theme look a bit different. Thus, being the odd man out! And this is really needed in the Blogging world- UNIQUE IDEAS.
@Tech-Freak Stuff – The problem with header widgets, is if you have specific header widgets.
Nice tutorial . It seems easy. Keep on writing this kind of tutorials, it is helpful for all bloggers.
Ruchi´s last blog ..Similarities between Programmer and Politician
@Ruchi – thanks, I have a few coming out this month to help others out.
Hey George – another skin change. I like this design a lot. This is a great little tutorials. Tweaking your sidebars is one of the best and easiest ways to make your site unique.
Somone´s last blog ..K to O of Essential Blogging Tips And Tricks
@Somone – yes, the sidebars can change the look and feel of a site.
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