Special 404 header page

Question

I wonder if there is a specific way to create a custom 404 header template.

This can be done for secondary page, but creating a header-404.php doesn't do the trick.

Am I really supposed to create an if in the main header checking whether the is_404() returns true?

Thanks Andrea

Answer 1

Further to my comment:

I ran across a very similar issue with get_sidebar(), which I expected (incorrectly) to work the same as get_template_part(). A work-around is to do something like this:

// instead of using get_header( '404' ); , do this:
get_template_part( 'header', '404' );
// which should select 'header-404.php', or, if it doesn't
// exist, fail over to 'header.php'

References

• get_header()
• get_sidebar()
• get_template_part()

Answer 2

As said in Codex

header-404.php is not auto loaded on 404.php template, you have to create it but also call the header using

get_header( '404' );

instead of get_header().