Minimal Mistakes now requires [Jekyll](http://jekyllrb.com/) 2.2+. Make sure to run `gem update jekyll` if you aren't on the latest version or `gem install jekyll` if this is your first time installing it.
If you are creating a new Jekyll site using Minimal Mistakes follow these steps:
1. Fork the [Minimal Mistakes repo](http://github.com/mmistakes/minimal-mistakes/fork).
3. [Install Bundler](http://bundler.io) `gem install bundler` and Run `bundle install` to install all dependencies (Jekyll, [Jekyll-Sitemap](https://github.com/jekyll/jekyll-sitemap), [Octopress](https://github.com/octopress/octopress), etc)
3. Run `bundle install` to install all dependencies (Jekyll, [Jekyll-Sitemap](https://github.com/jekyll/jekyll-sitemap), [Octopress](https://github.com/octopress/octopress), etc)
4. Remove demo posts/pages and replace with your own posts, pages, and any other content you want to move over.
5. Update posts' and pages' YAML to match variables used by Minimal Mistakes. Full details below.
6. Update `_config.yml` and add navigation links. Full details below.
**Pro-tip:** Delete the `gh-pages` branch after cloning and start fresh by branching off `master`. There is a bunch of garbage in `gh-pages` used for the theme's demo site that I'm guessing you won't want.
{: .notice}
---
## Scaffolding
How Minimal Mistakes is organized and what the various files are. All posts, layouts, includes, stylesheets, assets, and whatever else is grouped nicely under the root folder. The compiled Jekyll site outputs to `_site/`.
{% highlight text %}
minimal-mistakes/
├── _includes/
| ├── _author-bio.html # bio stuff layout. pulls optional owner data from _config.yml
| ├── _browser-upgrade.html # prompt to install a modern browser for <IE9
Used to generate absolute urls in `sitemap.xml`, `feed.xml`, and for generating canonical URLs in `<head>`. When developing locally either comment this out or use something like `http://localhost:4000` so all assets load properly. *Don't include a trailing `/`*.
Google Analytics UA and Webmaster Tool verification tags can be entered under `owner` in `_config.yml`. For more information on obtaining these meta tags check [Google Webmaster Tools](http://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=35179) and [Bing Webmaster Tools](https://ssl.bing.com/webmaster/configure/verify/ownership) support.
### Navigation Links
To set what links appear in the top navigation edit `_data/navigation.yml`. Use the following format to set the URL and title for as many links as you'd like. *External links will open in a new window.*
While completely optional, I've included Octopress and some starter templates to automate the creation of new posts and pages. To take advantage of it start by installing the [Octopress](https://github.com/octopress/octopress) gem if it isn't already.
Default works great if you want all your posts in one directory, but if you're like me and want to group them into subfolders like `/posts`, `/portfolio`, etc. Then this is the command for you. By specifying the DIR it will create a new post in that folder and populate the `categories:` YAML with the same value.
{% highlight bash %}
$ octopress new post "New Post Title" --dir posts
{% endhighlight %}
### New Page
To create a new page use the following command.
{% highlight bash %}
$ octopress new page new-page/
{% endhighlight %}
This will create a page at `/new-page/index.md`
---
## Layouts and Content
Explanations of the various `_layouts` included with the theme and when to use them.
### Post and Page
These two layouts are very similar. Both have an author sidebar, allow for large feature images at the top, and optional Disqus comments. The only real difference is the post layout includes related posts at the end of the page.
### Post Index Page
A [sample index page]({{ site.url }}/posts/) listing all posts grouped by the year they were published has been provided. The name can be customized to your liking by editing a few references. For example, to change **Posts** to **Writing** update the following:
* In `_config.yml` under `links:` rename the title and URL to the following:
{% highlight yaml %}
links:
- title: Writing
url: /writing/
{% endhighlight %}
* Rename `posts/index.md` to `writing/index.md` and update the YAML front matter accordingly.
* Update the **View all posts** link in the `post.html` layout found in `_layouts` to match title and URL set previously.
### Feature Images
A good rule of thumb is to keep feature images nice and wide so you don't push the body text too far down. An image cropped around around 1024 x 256 pixels will keep file size down with an acceptable resolution for most devices. If you want to serve these images responsively I'd suggest looking at the [Jekyll Picture Tag](https://github.com/robwierzbowski/jekyll-picture-tag) plugin[^plugins].
[^plugins]: If you're using GitHub Pages to host your site be aware that plugins are disabled. You'll need to build your site locally and then manually deploy if you want to use this sweet plugin.
The post and page layouts make the assumption that the feature images live in the `images/` folder. To add a feature image to a post or page just include the filename in the front matter like so. It's probably best to host all your images from this folder, but you can hotlink from external sources if you desire.
{% highlight yaml %}
image:
feature: feature-image-filename.jpg
thumb: thumbnail-image.jpg #keep it square 200x200 px is good
{% endhighlight %}
To add attribution to a feature image use the following YAML front matter on posts or pages. Image credits appear directly below the feature image with a link back to the original source if supplied.
{% highlight yaml %}
image:
feature: feature-image-filename.jpg
credit: Michael Rose #name of the person or site you want to credit
creditlink: http://mademistakes.com #url to their site or licensing
Feature and thumbnail images are used by [Open Graph](https://developers.facebook.com/docs/opengraph/) and [Twitter Cards](https://dev.twitter.com/docs/cards) as well. If you don't assign a thumbnail the default graphic *(default-thumb.png)* is used. I'd suggest changing this to something more meaningful --- your logo or avatar are good options.
**Pro-Tip**: You need to [apply for Twitter Cards](https://dev.twitter.com/docs/cards) before they will begin showing up when links to your site are shared.
{:.notice}
### Author Override
By making use of data files you can assign different authors for each post.
Start by modifying `authors.yml` file in the `_data` folder and add your authors using the following format.
{% highlight yaml %}
# Authors
billy_rick:
name: Billy Rick
web: http://thewhip.com
email: billy@rick.com
bio: "What do you want, jewels? I am a very extravagant man."
avatar: bio-photo-2.jpg
twitter: extravagantman
google:
plus: +BillyRick
cornelius_fiddlebone:
name: Cornelius Fiddlebone
email: cornelius@thewhip.com
bio: "I ordered what?"
avatar: bio-photo.jpg
twitter: rhymeswithsackit
google:
plus: +CorneliusFiddlebone
{% endhighlight %}
To assign Billy Rick as an author for our post. We'd add the following YAML front matter to a post:
Any post or page that you want a *table of contents* to render insert the following HTML in your post before the actual content. [Kramdown will take care of the rest](http://kramdown.rubyforge.org/converter/html.html#toc) and convert all headlines into a contents list.
**PS:** The TOC is hidden on small devices because I haven't gotten around to optimizing it. For now it only appears on larger screens (tablet and desktop).
{: .notice}
{% highlight html %}
<sectionid="table-of-contents"class="toc">
<header>
<h3>Overview</h3>
</header>
<divid="drawer"markdown="1">
* Auto generated table of contents
{:toc}
</div>
</section><!-- /#table-of-contents -->
{% endhighlight %}
#### Videos
Video embeds are responsive and scale with the width of the main content block with the help of [FitVids](http://fitvidsjs.com/).
Not sure if this only effects Kramdown or if it's an issue with Markdown in general. But adding YouTube video embeds causes errors when building your Jekyll site. To fix add a space between the `<iframe>` tags and remove `allowfullscreen`. Example below:
Jekyll 2.x added support for Sass files making it much easier to modify a theme's fonts and colors. By editing values found in `_sass/variables.scss` you can fine tune the site's colors and typography.
For example if you wanted a red background instead of white you'd change `$bodycolor: #fff;` to `$bodycolor: $cc0033;`.
To modify the site's JavaScript files I setup a Grunt build script to lint/concatenate/minify all scripts into `scripts.min.js`. [Install Node.js](http://nodejs.org/), then [install Grunt](http://gruntjs.com/getting-started), and then finally install the dependencies for the theme contained in `package.json`:
From the theme's root, use `grunt` concatenate JavaScript files, and optimize .jpg, .png, and .svg files in the `images/` folder. You can also use `grunt dev` in combination with `jekyll build --watch` to watch for updates JS files that Grunt will then automatically re-build as you write your code which will in turn auto-generate your Jekyll site when developing locally.
Found a bug or aren't quite sure how something works? By all means Ping me on Twitter [@mmistakes](http://twitter.com/mmistakes) or [file a GitHub Issue](https://github.com/mmistakes/minimal-mistakes/issues/new). And if you make something cool with this theme feel free to let me know.
This theme is free and open source software, distributed under the MIT License. So feel free to use this Jekyll theme on your site without linking back to me or including a disclaimer.
