Build a Simple Coda Doc

As mentioned in the previous video, 0:00 Coda Docs can be as simple as a writing surface. 0:02 Or for managing sets of data, creating custom workflows, and even creating apps. 0:05 Now that you're a little more familiar with Coda, 0:10 it's time to explore some of Coda's core building blocks. 0:12 I'm going to walk you through how to create and publish a Coda doc. 0:17 We'll create an About Me doc, 0:21 where we'll list some skills we're currently interested in learning or 0:22 developing and create a simple blog we can use to share our learning journey. 0:26 This is how it's going to look when complete. 0:30 In my About Me page, I've displayed photos that best describe me. 0:33 Then I've got some topics I plan to learn at Treehouse for example. 0:38 And the My Learning Blog page lists each of my blog entries. 0:42 Once I publish this doc, I can easily share it with my friends and family. 0:46 I encourage you to follow along with me as I create this doc. 0:51 Making your own doc from scratch is probably the easiest and 0:55 most fun way to learn about some of the building blocks that Coda offers. 0:58 Okay here on the main page at coda.io/docs 1:03 I'll make a new doc by clicking "New Doc". 1:08 This time I won't be using a template or importing any tools or files. 1:11 So I'll select "Start with a blank page". 1:15 In Coda, pages are the most essential building block. 1:19 Everything starts with a page like this one. 1:22 In this case, it's an empty page. 1:24 Coda refers to the blank part of a page as the Canvas, 1:27 because it's much like a painting canvas. 1:30 It's super flexible, and full of infinite possibilities. 1:33 As you'll soon learn, you can throw anything on the Canvas – text, images, 1:36 videos, content from other places and apps, and more. 1:40 I'll start by adding some text to my empty Canvas, starting with a title, About Me. 1:44 I'll click the Add icon button to add a fun icon to my heading like this one here. 1:51 Next, how about adding an attention grabbing cover 1:58 image to the top of the stock? 2:01 To set a cover image, hover over the top of the page and click Add cover. 2:03 Then you can add your image by either choosing one from Unsplash, 2:09 which is a fantastic directory of free stock photos. 2:13 Or you can upload your own image by clicking Upload Image. 2:16 I'll choose one from Unsplash. 2:20 I'll type "code" and this one looks great. 2:22 Below my title, 2:28 I'll type an introductory paragraph that starts with an emoji of course. 2:29 Coda has a shortcut for reviewing and searching for building blocks you can 2:34 add to your doc, simply type a forward slash into your canvas. 2:39 For example, I'll search for the wave emoji like so. 2:43 Then enter my text. 2:52 "I'm Guil, a developer, lifelong learner and instructor at Treehouse. 2:55 This is a space where I'm documenting all the new things I learned about 2:58 programming." 3:01 I mentioned earlier that I wanted to feature a learning blog. 3:03 So I'll add a second page to my doc and call it My Learning Blog. 3:07 You can name yours whatever you'd like. 3:12 I'll also add a page icon and a cover image. 3:14 This time I'll upload my own image by clicking "Add cover", 3:22 and dropping my image onto the top of the page. 3:26 Now let's create a simple structure for our blog posts. 3:31 We'll add text, format the text, and add hyperlinks. 3:34 Since this is the blog where my most recent posts will appear at the top, 3:38 I'll start by adding a couple of spaces below my title, then type today's date. 3:43 Next I'll format the date by selecting it, then going to the text 3:52 formatting toolbar to format it as a H2 or Medium heading. 3:57 This is also where you can format text as bullet points, numbered lists, and so on. 4:03 Now, below my heading, I'll add some text for 4:09 this first entry about a new Python course I'm about to take at Treehouse. 4:13 Like many other docs, I can turn text into a hyperlink by 4:20 selecting the text I want to convert to a link. 4:24 Then, up in the toolbar, click the Insert Hyperlink icon and paste in a URL. 4:28 I can add other elements to my pages like divider lines and images. 4:36 With Coda, you can even embed videos you can play directly from your doc. 4:40 So for example, on the line below the title, 4:45 I'll type /line, then select Line separator. 4:49 This creates some visual separation between the page title and 4:54 the blog entries. 4:58 Below my paragraph, I will add an image of me. 4:59 To upload an image into your page, you can either type /image, 5:02 then choose the image to upload. 5:07 Or you can drag the image into your page, then adjust its size if needed. 5:09 Now below my image, I'll embed a YouTube video about learning Python at Treehouse. 5:23 I'll type the text, "Here's a little more about the course if you're curious." 5:29 And remember, the slash command saves you time and 5:43 keeps you in the flow when making docs. 5:47 So I'll type /video. 5:50 Under media, select video, and here you can add a link to any video you'd 5:54 like to embed from YouTube, Vimeo or Facebook. 5:59 For example, I'll paste in a link to a YouTube video 6:02 And notice how you can simply click on the video to play it from here. 6:09 You can also embed other types of content into your pages. 6:19 The easiest way to embed content is to type /embed on a blank line, 6:22 and Coda includes a few quick suggestions to let you add any links you'd like. 6:26 Finally, let's tidy up our page a bit. 6:32 The more I learn, the more entries I'll likely add to my blog, so 6:35 I'll need a simple way to keep this page organized. 6:38 Coda offers a few options for organizing your doc. 6:42 One of my favorites is using collapsible content to consolidate pages. 6:45 For example, hover over the three dot menu to the left of the heading, 6:50 then click on the menu icon and select Collapse content. 6:55 Notice how the content below the heading collapses. To view the content, 6:59 click on the arrow icon. 7:03 Next, I'll create a new blog entry just above the first one. 7:11 I'll add the text "Learning Python is so much fun." 7:27 Then I'll collapse it, and the result is a much cleaner looking page, 7:37 which is especially helpful if your page has a lot of information. 7:43 All right, I've created my two main pages, 7:55 and it looks like the structure of my blog is complete. 7:58

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