Set up GIT first

If you have not already done so, download and install Git on your computer. See Git Components for instructions.

Set up a GitHub account

Setting up a GitHub account couldn't be easier. Just visit https://github.com/ and click the Sign Up button.

•Choose your user name carefully, because that will also be used in the addresses of your projects on GitHub.

•The list of interests is only to direct you to various paid plans, so it doesn't really matter what you select there at first.

•Choose the free plan to get started. You can consider other plans later.

When you're done you'll be taken to your new home page on GitHub:

Download and install the GitHub Desktop Git GUI

You are going to need GitHub Desktop for most of the operations described here, so download and install that now:

https://desktop.github.com/

Sign in to your account with GitHub Desktop

After installing, you need to sign in to your GitHub account with GitHub desktop. You will then be asked to continue to your browser, where you will authorize GitHub Desktop to access your account.

To work with Help+Manual in GitHub, you first need to turn the project your team wants to collaborate on into a Git repository and upload it to GitHub.

Warning: Don't use the New Repository... option

If you use the New Repository... option for this in GitHub Desktop, it will create an empty repository folder inside your Help+Manual project folder, which is not what you want.

Initialize a HM project as a Git repository

1.Open GitHub Desktop and select Add Local Repository in the File menu. This dialog opens:

2.Click Choose... and select the Help+Manual project folder you want to initialize as a repository. GitHub Desktop will tell you it's not a repository:

3.Click on the link in the text shown above to get this dialog:

4.The path cannot be changed now. Just enter a name and description and click on Create to initialize the project as a Git repository.

GitHub Desktop will apply the settings and create the .git sub-folder containing all the repository data. Never touch or edit anything in this folder.

Upload the repository to GitHub

Once you have created the repository, this screen will be displayed in GitHub Desktop:

Procedure

1.Check that the branch shown at the top is "main", which is required for Help+Manual. If it isn't, this means you missed an important step in your Git installation. To change this, open an administrator command console and enter the following command to correct this:

2.Enter a summary and description at the lower left.

3.Click on Publish Repository to upload to GitHub.

To be able to access the repository, your users need to have their own GitHub accounts and you need to add them as collaborators by sending them an invitation. You will need the GitHub user names of the users you want to invite.

1.Log into your GitHub account in your web browser and select the project repository from the list on the left. Then click on the Settings link in the bar above the project details:

2.Then select Collaborators on the left and the green Add People button on the right:

3.Enter the user name in the dialog displayed and confirm the invitation. The user will then have 7 days to confirm.

Once you have confirmed your administrator's invitation to collaborate on the project via the repository you can download your local working copy with GitHub desktop. The repository you have been invited to will show up in the GitHub Desktop window:

Click on the Clone button at the bottom right and choose a location for your local copy. It must be in a directory where you have full read and write permissions.

Then just click on Clone to create the working copy. You can then work in the project in Help+Manual.