The Ultimate Cheat Sheet for Your Academic Pages Website

Welcome to your comprehensive guide for managing the academicpages template. Whether you want to add a new publication, change your site’s theme, or simply update your profile picture, this guide will show you exactly where to look.

The Golden Rule of Editing

Before diving into specific files, understanding the folder structure is the key to success. Ask yourself what kind of change you are trying to make:

• Is it Content? If you are adding text, posts, or items, you will usually edit Markdown (.md) files inside the collection folders: _pages/, _posts/, _publications/, _talks/, _teaching/, or _portfolio/.
• Is it Site Chrome or Styling? If you are changing how the site looks or behaves globally, you will usually edit _config.yml, _data/*.yml, _includes/*.html, _layouts/*.html, or _sass/*.scss.

Important Note: If you make changes to _config.yml, you must restart your local Jekyll server to see the updates. That specific file does not hot-reload!

Fast Map: Where Do I Edit That?

Use this quick-reference table to find exactly which file controls the element you want to change.

Customizing Your Homepage & Profile

Your homepage is the front door to your academic portfolio. It is built using a combination of your configuration settings and a specific Markdown file.

Anatomy of the Homepage

1. The Content: The main text body is managed in _pages/about.md. You can write standard Markdown here (tables, lists, embedded HTML).
2. The Left Sidebar: This pulls your personal details (photo, bio, location, email) directly from the author: section in _config.yml. Ensure your profile picture is saved in the images/ folder!
3. The Top Menu: Controlled by _data/navigation.yml.

Adding a Hero Banner

Want to make a visual impact? You can add a wide hero image to your homepage (or any page) by modifying the YAML front matter at the top of the file:

header:
  overlay_image: "your-banner.jpg"
  overlay_filter: 0.35
  caption: "Photo credit"
  cta_url: "/cv/"
  cta_label: "View CV"

Managing Your Content Collections

The template is beautifully organized into specific content types. To add a new entry, simply create a new Markdown file in the corresponding folder using the correct YAML front matter.

📚 Publications (_publications/)

Showcase your papers. You can link directly to PDFs, slides, and provide BibTeX citations.

• List Layout: Edit _includes/archive-single.html to change how publications look in the main list.

🎤 Talks (_talks/)

Keep track of your keynotes, presentations, and guest lectures. You can specify the venue, location, and date.

📝 Blog Posts (_posts/)

Standard chronological blog posts. Format your filenames as YYYY-MM-DD-title.md.

🎓 Teaching & Portfolio (_teaching/ & _portfolio/)

Detail the courses you instruct and specific projects you have worked on. The portfolio section allows for teaser images on the main archive page.

📄 Your CV

You have two great options for rendering your CV:

1. Markdown CV: Edit _pages/cv.md for a traditional text-based page.
2. JSON CV: Edit _data/cv.json to generate a dynamic CV using _pages/cv-json.md.

Themes, Look, and Feel

You don’t need to be a CSS wizard to drastically change how your site looks. The academicpages template comes with several built-in color palettes.

Changing the Theme

Open _config.yml and look for the site_theme variable. You can instantly change the entire color scheme by typing one of the following:

• default
• air
• sunrise
• mint
• dirt
• contrast

If you need to make granular adjustments to fonts, spacing, or the main layout, you will want to explore the files inside the _sass/ folder.

Quick Recipes for Common Tasks

• Change the profile photo: Upload a new image to images/ and update avatar: "your-image.jpg" in _config.yml.
• Add a new menu tab: Create your new page in _pages/, then add the title and URL to _data/navigation.yml.
• Hide the sidebar on a page: Add author_profile: false to the YAML front matter of that specific page.
• Create a full-width landing page: Set layout: splash and author_profile: false in the page’s front matter, then add a header: block with an image.

Lost? Use the Safe Editing Order

If you want to change a specific element but aren’t sure where to start, follow this order of operations:

1. Check the Markdown file: Look in _pages/ or the specific content folder (like _talks/).
2. Check the Configuration: Look in _config.yml and _data/navigation.yml.
3. Check the Includes: Look in _includes/ for the specific HTML snippet.
4. Check the Layouts: Look in _layouts/.
5. Check the Styles: Dig into _sass/layout/ or _sass/theme/.