How to change the header of Magento CMS page

This article explains how to customize a header of any Magento CMS or Module page without additional Magento theme development.

In this example we consider CMS-page “About Us”.

Screenshot with AboutUs CMS-page

1. Enter to the admin and open the editor of the CMS pages:

Screenshot of admin panel where the editor of the CMS pages

2. Open for editing the page “About Us”:

Screenshot where Open for editing the page About Us

3. Go to the tab “Design”:

Screenshot where open the tab design

4. Add the following text in the section “Layout Update XML”:

<!-- BOF added by Atwix --> 
<reference name="header">
    <block type="page/header" name="header">
        <action method="setTemplate"><template>cms/headers/about_us.phtml</template></action> 
    </block> 
</reference> 
<!-- EOF added by Atwix -->

5. Save сhanges:

Screenshot Save the changes for CMS page

6. It should be noted that the file with new header is on the following address app/design/frontend/base/default/template/cms/headers/about_us.phtml and has the next contents:

<h1>my header</h1>

* Instead of the standard theme app/design/frontend/base/default/template/cms/headers/about_us.phtml, which was used in the example you can use the theme of your store.

7. After all the new page “About Us” will be look like this:

Screenshot with the results on About Us CMS page
Screenshot with empty cart and default header

1. Prepare the file (for example, header.phtml) with a new header. Content of the new header.phtml will be like this:

<h1>my header</h1>

2. Copy the specified file in the folder where the files of the page Shopping Cart are, specifically in:

app/design/frontend/base/default/template/checkout/cart/header/header.phtml

* Instead of the standard theme app/design/frontend/base/default/template/checkout/cart/header/header.phtml, which was used in the example you can use the theme of your store

3. Create the file local.xml in the folder app/design/frontend/base/default/layout/ (or if this file has been already existed just open it for editing). In the file local.xml add the following code:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<layout version="0.1.0">
<!-- BOF added by Atwix --> 
    <checkout_cart_index> 
        <reference name="header"> 
            <block type="page/header" name="header">
                <action method="setTemplate"><template>checkout/cart/header/header.phtml</template></action> 
            </block>
        </reference>
    </checkout_cart_index> 
<!-- EOF added by Atwix --> 
</layout>

* In this example was used layout of the standard theme app/design/frontend/base/default/layout/local.xml. In your store use layout of the your store`s theme.

4. Save all your changes and update the Shopping Cart page.

As a result, we will see:

Screenshot with empty cart and custom header

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