Creating a Config File

While the body of your site will largely be comprised of your manuscript text, you need to make a few settings choices to control the site title, color, and fonts.

All of that is included in the _config.yml file in the main folder of your new repository.

You can use our config-file generator to generate a config file customized to your specific publication.

Generate a Config File

Once you’ve downloaded your config file:

  1. Find the “Code” navigation tab in your new Github repository.
  2. Find the _config.yml from the list of files in your repository. All of the main settings for your site are in this file.
  3. Look for the pencil icon on the right-hand side of the page. Press it to enter “edit” mode.
  4. Select all of the contents of the _config.yml file in the Github editor.
  5. Open the config file you generated on our web site (You can use Word or Google docs or Notepad).
  6. Select all of the contents of the file and use the “Copy” command (CTRL-C on Windows or ⌘-C on Mac) to put that text into your clipboard.
  7. Switch back to the _config.yml file in Github.
  8. Replace the contents of the config file from our template repository with the contents of the downloaded config file by using the “Paste” command (CTRL-V on Windows or ⌘-V on Mac)
  9. Scroll down and look for the green “commit” button. Press it to save your configuration file.
  10. Press the green “Commit” button on the pop-up screen.