Quarto Documentation Series

A comprehensive guide to using Quarto for technical documentation websites, covering architecture, customization, optimization, and deployment.

📚 Series Overview

Target Audience: Intermediate to advanced developers creating documentation sites with Quarto

Series Scope:

✅ Covered: Quarto website projects, architecture, configuration, theming, navigation, deployment
❌ Not Covered: Book projects, presentations, computational notebooks (see Official Quarto Docs)

Total Articles: 13
Estimated Reading Time: 8-10 hours
Last Updated: December 26, 2025

🗺️ Reading Order

01 - Introduction & Fundamentals

1. Using Quarto (formerly 000.000)
Introduction to Quarto, project structure, GitHub Pages deployment basics
📊 ~4000 words | ⏱️ 20 min

2. How Quarto Works (formerly 001.001)
Core architecture, site initialization, page loading, rendering mechanisms
📊 ~5000 words | ⏱️ 25 min

02 - Architecture & Deployment Strategies

3. Monolithic vs. Modular Deployment (formerly 001.002)
Deployment architecture strategies, scaling considerations, when to use modular approaches
📊 ~6000 words | ⏱️ 30 min

4. Split Navigation Build from Content Rendering (formerly 001.003)
Step-by-step implementation of modular architecture with separated navigation shell
📊 ~4500 words | ⏱️ 25 min

03 - Configuration

5. Quarto.yml Document Structure (formerly 001.010)
Comprehensive reference for all _quarto.yml configuration options
📊 ~3500 words | ⏱️ 20 min

04 - Content Creation

6. Quarto-Specific Markdown Features (formerly 003.010)
Extended markdown syntax: div blocks, callouts, cross-references, interactive elements
📊 ~3000 words | ⏱️ 15 min

05 - Styling & Theming

7. Quarto Theming and Styling (formerly 002.010)
Built-in themes, custom CSS/SCSS, Bootstrap integration, typography, color schemes
📊 ~4000 words | ⏱️ 20 min

06 - Navigation & Layout

8. How Sidebar Layout Works (formerly 009.000)
Three-panel layout architecture, sidebar configuration, related pages implementation
📊 ~2000 words | ⏱️ 10 min

9. Navigation Workflow (formerly 009.010)
Automated navigation.json generation, navbar/sidebar config, workflows
📊 ~3000 words | ⏱️ 15 min

10. Sidebar Page Transition Optimization (formerly 009.020)
Performance optimization for sidebar state restoration during page transitions
📊 ~500 words | ⏱️ 5 min

07 - Optimization & Performance

11. Optimizing Quarto Build and Deploy (formerly 007.010)
Build performance improvements, caching strategies, GitHub Actions optimization
📊 ~3500 words | ⏱️ 20 min

08 - Troubleshooting

12. Troubleshooting Quarto Sites ⭐ NEW
Common errors, debugging techniques, build/navigation/deployment issues
📊 ~2500 words | ⏱️ 15 min

09 - Deployment

13. Deploying to GitHub Pages (formerly 010.001)
Complete GitHub Pages deployment guide with automated workflows
📊 ~3000 words | ⏱️ 15 min

14. Deploying to Azure Storage (formerly 010.002)
Azure Storage Account static websites, CDN integration, custom domains
📊 ~4000 words | ⏱️ 20 min

🎯 Quick Start Paths

New to Quarto?

Start here: Articles 1 → 2 → 5 → 6 → 13
Learn fundamentals, configuration, content creation, and basic deployment

Building a Large Documentation Site?

Focus on: Articles 2 → 3 → 4 → 11
Understand architecture, scaling strategies, and performance optimization

Customizing Look and Feel?

Focus on: Articles 5 → 7 → 8 → 9
Configuration, theming, layout, and navigation customization

Deployment and Production?

Focus on: Articles 11 → 12 → 13 or 14
Optimization, troubleshooting, and deployment to your chosen platform

📋 Prerequisites

Before starting this series, you should have:

✅ Basic understanding of Markdown syntax
✅ Familiarity with command-line interfaces
✅ Git and GitHub account (for deployment sections)
✅ Text editor or IDE (VS Code recommended)
✅ Quarto installed (installation guide)

Optional but helpful:

YAML configuration basics
HTML/CSS fundamentals
GitHub Actions (for automated deployment)
Azure subscription (for Azure deployment section)

🔧 Series Scope & Limitations

What This Series Covers

Quarto Website Projects:

Static site generation for documentation
Configuration and customization
Navigation and layout systems
Deployment to various platforms
Performance optimization
Troubleshooting common issues

What This Series Does NOT Cover

Other Quarto Project Types:

📕 Book Projects → See Quarto Books Documentation
🎤 Presentations → See Reveal.js Presentations
📊 Dashboards → See Quarto Dashboards

Computational Content:

🐍 Executable Python/R notebooks → See Computations Guide
📓 Jupyter integration → See Jupyter Notebooks

Output Formats:

📄 PDF generation → See PDF Output
📝 Word/Office formats → See MS Word Output

🆚 When to Choose Quarto

Quarto is Ideal For:

✅ Technical documentation with code examples
✅ Scientific and research publications
✅ Multi-format output needs (HTML + PDF + Word)
✅ Documentation with executable code
✅ Projects requiring reproducibility

Consider Alternatives If:

Alternative	Best For	When to Choose
MkDocs	Python project docs	Simple docs, Material theme, fast setup
Docusaurus	Product documentation	Versioning, i18n, React ecosystem
Hugo	High-performance sites	1000+ pages, blazing fast builds
VitePress	Vue.js ecosystem	Vue projects, modern developer experience
Jekyll	GitHub Pages native	Ruby ecosystem, simple blogs

Decision Guide:

Need computational notebooks? → Quarto
Pure static content, 1000+ pages? → Hugo
React-based components? → Docusaurus
Python library docs? → MkDocs
Vue.js projects? → VitePress

🔄 Series Maintenance

Review Schedule:

Quarterly review for Quarto version updates
Check for broken links and deprecated features
Update examples and screenshots as needed

Current Quarto Version Targeted: 1.4+ (as of January 2025)

Contribution:

Found an error? Open an issue
Have a suggestion? Submit a pull request
Questions? Check the Quarto Community

📖 Additional Resources

Official Documentation

Community

📊 Series Metadata

series_info:
  name: "Quarto Documentation Guide"
  version: "1.0"
  total_articles: 14
  created_date: "2025-01-15"
  last_updated: "2025-12-26"
  target_audience: "intermediate-advanced"
  estimated_completion_time: "8-10 hours"
  
topics_covered:
  - quarto-architecture
  - static-site-generation
  - documentation-websites
  - deployment-strategies
  - performance-optimization
  - navigation-systems
  - theming-styling
  
prerequisites:
  required:
    - markdown-basics
    - command-line-basics
    - git-basics
  optional:
    - yaml-configuration
    - html-css-basics
    - github-actions

Last Review: December 26, 2025
Reviewed By: Dario Airoldi
Review Model: Claude Sonnet 4.5
Series Status: ✅ Active and Maintained