Newbie Guide To Working On Someone's GitHub

The first thing you should do as a newbie to GitHub is install GitHub Desktop https://desktop.github.com/

1.1 Method 1: Cloning a Project from Browser

Sign in to your account at github.com and open the project owner's GitHub project in the browser. For example. https://github.com/thiendao97/HelloWorld would be one. Then clone to your  preferred location this can be any where you want. Think of it as downloading a whole folder.

1.2 Method 2: Cloning a Project from GitHub Desktop

Open GitHub Desktop. File -> Clone Repository. Paste in the project owner's project URL. Then clone to your preferred location. The default is in your Documents\GitHub.

2.1 Easily locate directory with Repository -> Show in Explorer

Major GitHub Concept - Making Changes and Discarding Changes

When you modify, add or remove files inside the GitHub project you pulled, the changes will show up on GitHub Desktop. In the video example below, I will edit hi.java and you will see changes show up.

In GitHub Desktop, if you right click on a changed, added, or removed file you can click discard changes to revert things back to a previous commit.

Branching to work on your Part of Project

 To work on your portion of the project you should branch out! Give your branch a name a create it!

 

You can always switch between branches on GitHub. Every time you switch branches the files and folders will change based on the branch you swapped to!