You've created your repository, and learned a bit about Markdown and editing the README. How are you feeling? Ready to dig into writing your profile from scratch using Markdown? Or, possibly feeling like you're in a bit over your head? You are here because you're interested in creating your GitHub profile, but perhaps you weren't prepared for what goes into it. That's okay! There are multiple tools available that make it simple to generate the necessary Markdown so you can simply copy and paste it into your README file. This page will discuss the GitHub Profile Readme Generator by Arturs Smirnovs.
When you generate the README for your special personal repo, GitHub provides a set of prompts at the bottom of the file. Most of the various GitHub profile generators are, at least initially, based on those prompts.
The GitHub Profile Readme Generator is contained within one page, with the different profile info sections being editable in four tabs.
Here are some positive things about this README generator:
- It is available in English and Spanish.
- It shows a dynamic preview of what your README will look like as you enter information.
The top of the page allows you to choose which language you would like to use. After that, there are three sections of the page that you'll want to focus on to generate your README content.
Preview Section
This section previews your changes dynamically as you enter information. (Remember, it's initially prefilled with information from the creator.)
As you update the information in the next section, your info will show up in the preview section, as it will in your GitHub profile.
Information Input Section
The first section to focus on is the four tabs and everything below them in the bottom left of the page.
Header Section
The Header section, as titled, contains the various parts of your profile header. It allows you to specify a heading, a subtitle, a short bit about you, a list of skills, and a banner URL (such as the URL to the image you may have added earlier in this guide!).
This section is prefilled with example content. You will replace this content with your own information, or delete it and leave the box blank if you do not want to add a particular item to your header.
Additional Information
The Additional section provides a series of prompts that you can fill in if you wish. (Look familiar? This section is based on the prompts provided by GitHub when you initially generated your README!)
There is no default info filled in here, so simply fill in the ones you want to include, and leave blank those you do not.
Social Information
The Social section contains a default list of social media accounts, with space to include your username for that platform. There is also a spot to include your website. When filled in, they will show up as the icon (shown next to the platform in the list) in your profile which folks can click on.
Don't see your favorite social media platform on the list? Under Others, towards the bottom of the section, you'll find an extensive list of further options.
Other Information
The Others section requires your GitHub username at the top. Once entered, under the headings within the section, the checkboxes will become available for clicking. You can click on each one to see the widget rendered in the profile preview.
Add as many or as few widgets, etc, from this section as you like.
Updated Preview
Here is what the top of the preview looks like after custom information has been filled in.
Code Section
This section shows you the Markdown code to produce the preview. It is updated dynamically as you enter information.
Updated Code
Here is what the top of the code looks like for the previously filled custom information.
Updating Your README
Now that you've entered all of your desired information into the Generator, it's time to transfer the provided code to your GitHub README file.
Above the Code section, in the upper right corner of the section, you'll see a blue Copy button. Click it to copy the contents of the code section. Once you click, you'll see all of the code in the content box highlighted.
Now, head back over to GitHub and your README file. If you are not already in the file editor, click the Edit README button, or the pencil icon to enter the file editor.
This code is intended to replace all the current content in your README. If you have anything in there you'd like to keep, make sure you copy it out of the file editor before continuing.
Click into the file editor. Select all the text. Then paste the contents of the clipboard (which should be the Markdown code you copied from the Generator).
This is what the top of the file editor looks like with the generated content.
Now click the Preview tab to see what it will look like on GitHub.
As explained in the Edit Your README section, save the new content by committing your code to GitHub.
Other Options
If you're looking for a less involved but sleek looking profile, check out the GitHub Profile Readme Maker by Vishwa Gaurav.
The GitHub repository by rzashakeri contains a number of other options as well, beginning with number 7 in the list (the link takes you directly there). You'll likely want to search in page for "generator" to find all the possibilities, as they are spread throughout the list.
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