Create a GitHub Website Using a Theme

This document will walk you through the steps to set up your own GitHub Pages website using a theme from https://jekyllthemes.io/. Jekyll provides themes to create static websites, suitable for GitHub Pages.

Copying a Theme

Step 1: Go to jekyllthemes.io

Step 2: Choose a theme for your site. For this example, we’ll choose the Garth theme.

Step 3: Click Get Garth on GitHub to access the Garth theme repository on GitHub.

Step 4: Click Fork. When you fork a repository, you create a copy of it in your own GitHub account. This allows you to make changes to your copy without affecting the original repository.

Step 5: When the Create a new fork window opens, leave the defaults as they are. Click Create fork.

Step 6: Your forked repository opens up automatically in your browser. Click Settings.

Step 7: Enter the repository name. For GitHub Pages, the standard format for your repository name is <username>.github.io. This format is standard because GitHub Pages uses it to automatically create a website for the particular username. In this example, I’ve have used techdineshwrites.github.io.

Your site will now be live at <username>.github.io. In this example, the site will be live at techdineshwrites.github.io.

Customizing the Website

💡

The following steps are tailored for the specific example theme. Depending on your chosen theme and individual requirements, some steps might vary.

Step 1: Go to your forked repository in GitHub. As an example, I’d go to my techdineshwrites.github.io repository.

Step 2: Click _config.yml.

Step 3: Click Edit this file.

Step 4: Change the title and description in Collections and click Commit changes. I’ve changed the title and description of my config file to represent a cricket sports blog.

Step 5: We’ll now change the About link and page. Edit about.md.

Step 6: Edit the file content and commit. I’ve edited the content to explain a bit about me.

The updates are reflected on the site. The link text represents the title.

Clicking the About the Author link on the site directs us to the updated About page.

Step 7: To add or edit the blog posts of your site, go to the _posts folder.

Step 8: Click Add file, add the content, and commit it. I’ve added a new post about a famous cricketer.

The new post is on the blog site.

Congratulations! We’ve successfully created and customized your GitHub Pages website using a theme. Keep experimenting with different themes and customizations to make your site even more engaging. Keep building!