Building a portfolio website in Positron

2025-11-05

Pre-reqs

What is Quarto?

  • literate programming: Create reports, blogs, and presentations with code and text.
  • many formats: Export to PDF, HTML, Word, Powerpoint, and more.

Create new folder from template

  • Creating a new folder, or directory, to organize our files
  • Self-contained

Choose empty project

  • We can add Python or R code later, let’s just start with something basic

Name your folder

  • If you have a GitHub username, make this folder named GITHUB-USERNAME.github.io

View new folder

Click on “Search bar at the top”

  • Go to Show and Run Commands

Run Quarto: Create Project

  • In the quickpick, type Quarto: Create Project and select this project

Create Blog Project

  • You can choose the website or blog option. If you think you’ll want to add a portfolio of your work, a blog is a great choice.
  • This doesn’t lock you in forever. You can transition a blog into a website, or vice-versa later.

Choose you GITHUB-USERNAME.github.io directory

  • Select the folder you made earlier, named GITHUB-USERNAME.github.io

See your beautiful blog!

  • Explore these files.
  • _quarto.yml is the core configuration file of your website.
  • Anything ending in *.qmd is a Quarto Markdown file.
  • Go to a *.qmd file and pressing the Preview button to view your site!

What is a Quarto markdown file?

  • Text
  • Code (either static or run on render)
  • Show examples
```python
1+1
```

Ready to deploy?

Create repository for your blog

  • GitHub only (skip if quartopub)
  • Create a new repository with the name: your-username.github.io

Copy command from GitHub

  • GitHub only (skip if quartopub)

Paste command in terminal

  • GitHub only (skip if quartopub)
  • Make sure you are in the TERMINAL tab, not the CONSOLE tab

Publish blog, part 1

  • In the terminal, run quarto publish gh-pages if you’re using GitHub
  • Run quarto publish quarto-pub if you’re using Quarto Pub

Publish blog, part 1.5 (Quarto Pub)

  • Let Quarto authenticate to Quarto pub
  • Choose a reasonable name for your website, like portfolio

Publish blog, part 2

  • Go to your GitHub repo -> Settings -> Pages
  • Choose Deploy from branch and set the branch to gh-pages

Send your source code to GitHub

  • Queue up all your stages to be sent to GitHub
  • Add a Commit message and press “Push”

SUCCESS (hopefully)