Your First Handbook Page

Time to complete: 10 minutes

What you’ll learn: How to create your first section and page in the EBRAINS Handbook

In this tutorial, you’ll create a new section called “My Guide” with a page inside it. By the end, you’ll have a working page visible in the handbook navigation.

What You’ll Build

You’ll create:

A new section called “My Guide”
A page called “Getting Started” inside that section
Navigation that connects them

Prerequisites

Handbook repository cloned locally
Basic familiarity with command line
Text editor installed

Create Your Section Directory

Open your terminal and navigate to the handbook repository:

Create a new directory for your section:

What you just did: Created a folder that will contain your new section.

Create the Section File

Create a file called _index.md inside your new directory:

Open this file in your text editor and add this content:

Save the file.

What you just did: Created a section landing page. The _index.md file is special - it tells Hugo this is a section, not just a regular page.

Create Your First Page

Now create a page inside your section:

Open this file and add:

Save the file.

What you just did: Created your first content page. This page will appear inside the “My Guide” section.

Change the Title

Now that it’s working, try making changes:

Edit my-guide/getting-started.md and change the title:

Great!

Add Another Page

Create a second page:

Add content:

You just added a second page! Well done!

Collapse the Sidebar

Edit my-guide/_index.md and change:

Save and refresh. Now your section is collapsed by default.

Understanding What You Created

Let’s review what each piece does:

Directory Structure

What You Learned

How to create a section using _index.md
How to create pages inside a section
How to control navigation order with weight
The basic structure of a handbook page

You’ve successfully created your first handbook page. You’re now ready to contribute to the EBRAINS Handbook.