Quarto Publishing

Build websites, documents, and presentations with Quarto in just 2 hours

Quarto Publishing

Build websites, documents, and presentations with the modern open-source publishing system

Session Overview

This 2-hour microlearning session introduces Quarto, a next-generation open-source scientific and technical publishing system built on Pandoc. Quarto lets you create reproducible documents, presentations, dashboards, websites, and books from plain text Markdown files. It supports Python, R, Julia, and Observable JS for executable code, and outputs to HTML, PDF (via Typst or LaTeX), Word, and more.

What You’ll Learn

  • Install and configure Quarto on your system
  • Understand YAML frontmatter and project configuration
  • Create documents with Markdown, code blocks, and cross-references
  • Build multi-page websites with navigation and theming
  • Generate PDF output via Typst
  • Publish to GitHub Pages, Netlify, or Quarto Pub
  • Use layouts, callouts, and tabsets for rich content

Session Curriculum

Part 1: Getting Started (30 minutes)

  • Installing Quarto (CLI and VS Code / RStudio integration)
  • Creating your first .qmd document
  • Understanding YAML frontmatter options
  • Rendering to HTML and PDF
  • Markdown syntax refresher (headers, lists, links, images)
  • Callout blocks, tabsets, and layout columns

Part 2: Documents and Presentations (30 minutes)

  • Multi-format output (HTML, PDF via Typst, DOCX, RevealJS slides)
  • Code execution with Python, R, or Julia
  • Figure and table cross-references
  • Citations and bibliography management
  • Custom styling with CSS and SCSS
  • Parameterized documents

Part 3: Websites and Books (30 minutes)

  • Setting up a _quarto.yml project
  • Website navigation (navbar, sidebar, footer)
  • Blog listings and RSS feeds
  • Theming with Bootstrap and custom SCSS
  • Multi-language support
  • Book projects with chapters and appendices

Part 4: Publishing and Deployment (30 minutes)

  • Publishing to GitHub Pages via GitHub Actions
  • Deploying to Netlify and Quarto Pub
  • Custom domains and HTTPS
  • Continuous integration workflows
  • Performance optimization (freeze, cache)
  • Hands-on: Build and deploy a personal site

Prerequisites

  • Basic familiarity with Markdown
  • A text editor (VS Code recommended)
  • Command line basics
  • No programming experience required (but helpful for executable documents)

Resources

Ready to publish?

Join our next microlearning session and start building with Quarto.

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2-hour session   Hands-on   All levels
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