Welcome to my guide for setting up and editing your website. Here you’ll find everything you need to maintain your website. If you have any questions, contact me.

One-time computer and project setup

1. I'm starting from complete scratch. How do I get started?
   You'll need to set up accounts for a few services, and then set up your computer. Tell me more >>
2. Which accounts do I need to set up?
   You'll most likely need to create accounts on Porkbun (for your domain), GitHub (for your website), and Formspree (for your contact form). Tell me more >>
3. What do I need to have on my laptop to make changes to my website?
   GitHub Desktop and Sublime Text 4. Tell me more >>
4. How do I set up my computer to be preview changes I make before publishing them publicly?
   Install Ruby and Jekyll. A command in Terminal runs a temporary local server. Tell me more >>

Getting started every day

1. I want to make a change. How do I set up my desktop to start editing?
   Open Sublime Text and GitHub Desktop. If you're set up to preview your website, open Terminal and your favorite web browser. Tell me more >>
2. How do I use Sublime Text?
   Make your edits and save the file. If you have the local server running, you can then refresh the browser to see what your changes look like. Tell me more >>

Editing your website

1. How can I add formatting style to my text?
   Use Markdown to format your text. Certain formatting is done automatically for you, like converting straight quotes to smart ones. Tell me more >>
2. What's the best way to deal with images?
   For website assets, use a service like tinyjpg.com or tinypng.com. For high-quality photography, go for large pixel dimensions with higher compression, with a soft limit of 400 KB per image. Tell me more >>
3. What's the best way to deal with videos?
   It's best to have the video published in a service like YouTube or Vimeo. We can embed the video into your website. Tell me more >>

Publishing your changes

1. I've made some changes to my website on my computer. How do I publish them to the web?
   Make sure you've committed the changes in GitHub Desktop with "Commit to main". Then "Push origin". Give GitHub about 2 minutes before trying to reload the website. Tell me more >>

Closing for the day

1. Ok, I'm done. How do I clean up my desktop?
   Quit GitHub Desktop and Sublime Text. If you have a local server running, stop it, then quit Terminal. Tell me more >>