This README is to help you navigate through my project on hosting a Markdown-formatted resume on a static generated website. After reading this README, you should be able to open my resume in your browser and understand how writing in Markdown works.
Use the table of contents below to help you navigate through this README.
- Project Overview
- Technology Prerequisites
- Instructions
- Further Resources and Help
- Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
- Credits
I used Pelican which is a Python-based static site generator.
This project uses version control called Git to help track progress and make project management easier. It is hosted on a forge called GitHub. Access the repository of this resume by clicking on this GitHub link.
Here are the steps that I took to host my website in a terminal:
To run/open the website, your computer must have these specifications:
- Operating Systems (OS): Windows 10 or Windows 11
- Little knowledge on using a terminal: change directory and run commands
- Any browser: Chrome (recommended)/ Safari/ Firefox
I hosted my website using a static-site generator by Pelican. Essentially means that the website is run locally, therefore has fewer security risks and often faster to load.
To open my website, please follow the instructions below:
- Download this repository/ directory/ folder
- Open your the terminal in your computer (or laptop!)
- Make you are in the directory that you just download by looking at the terminal path. If you aren't, move to this directory by using
cd, which stands for 'change directory'. For example:Note: since you're using Windows, make sure to use quotation marks for each folder name that contains whitespacePS C:\Users\ashle\OneDrive\Desktop\UManitoba> cd .\Courses\"WINTER 2026"\"COMP 2600"\Assignment2 PS C:\Users\ashle\OneDrive\Desktop\UManitoba\Courses\WINTER 2026\COMP 2600\Assignment2>
- Generate the HTML version of the website in your local machine by typing the following command in the terminal
pelican content. Once you run this command, it should look similar to this:PS C:\Users\ashle\OneDrive\Desktop\UManitoba\Courses\WINTER 2026\COMP 2600\Assignment2> pelican content Done: Processed 0 articles, 0 drafts, 0 hidden articles, 0 pages, 0 hidden pages and 0 draft pages in 0.19 seconds.
- Preview the website locally using
pelican --listen. It will point to your local, static browserhttp://127.0.0.1:8000/. After running, it should look like this:Don't worry about the text it produces afterwards, it's just the system communicating with each other and notifying you.PS C:\Users\ashle\OneDrive\Desktop\UManitoba\Courses\WINTER 2026\COMP 2600\Assignment2> pelican --listen Serving site at: http://127.0.0.1:8000 - Tap CTRL-C to stop [10:44:46] INFO "GET / HTTP/1.1" 200 - server.py:126 INFO "GET /theme/css/main.css HTTP/1.1" 200 ...
- Copy-paste the local link to the browser of your choice, or use a shortcut: CTRL+click* on the provided local link. You should be able to see my website on the browser, containing my resume:
The resume (and this README) is written in Markdown, which is a Markup Language. As a lightweight language that is easy to use and learn, Markdown has become a very popular language to use in documentation and websites. It provides extra features, such as, inline HTML, tables, footnotes, and task lists.
Using Etter's Modern Technical Writing as a guiding principle for writing this Markdown, this README is meant to be simple and direct. You will find that every step or instructions provided in this document sound actionable (leads the sentence with a verb) for straight-forwardness.
- Pelican help: Pelican Documentation
- Forge help: GitHub Documentation
- Beginner version control tutorial: W3Schools Learn Git
- Markdown help: Markdown Cheatsheet
- Terminal help: Using Basic Terminal Commands
Writing text in raw HTML was the common norm back before Markdown existed. Even though both HTML and Markdown are Markup languages, depending on your usage, Markdown can be a better choice to use for several reasons:
- HTML syntax is cumbersome and hard to read. It's naturally easier to learn a technical tool that's using a language of our own, therefore, using Markdown reduces that learning curve.
- Markdown as a popular Markup language is supported by tons of extension created by users around to preview the result. This tool makes writing in markdown more visual and beginner friendly than HTML. That's why most README files these days are written in this language.
- HTML can have some security risks when allowed for user-generated content but Markdown is generally safer in this sense.
I changed the Markdown version of my resume, so why don't I see the changes when i refresh the website in my browser?
It seems your browser is just unaware of the changes that you made locally in you Markdown file. Check if your static site generator is 'listening' to your changes. Otherwise, if you're using Pelican static site generator follow the steps below:
- First, open your terminal and make sure you're in the hosting website's directory. You can move to that directory by using
cd directory_path - Second, make sure Pelican is generating the HTML version of the website (compiling). Re-load this HTML using
pelican content - Lastly, preview the website locally using
pelican --listen. It should point to your local hosting address which would look similar to http://127.0.0.1:8000
Short answer is, yes. Having a README in each of your repository helps users and developers understand the standard questions of a project. As a form of documentation and presenation, without one, a project of any kind would be harder to maintain and understand.
Follow the following link for more information on using README as documentation: GitHub README Info
Below is the list of people who helped finish this project
- Ashley Davis Kosasih (myself, author)
- Rafael Santiago (peer-review teammate)
- Claudius Marco Andrew (peer-review teammate)
- Tristan Miller (instructor of the course)