incremental progress on #19 - populating the contributor's guide

README.md

@@ -8,20 +8,46 @@ The portal site is built with [sphinx](https://www.sphinx-doc.org/).
 To build the site locally (e.g. for testing new content),
 use [conda](https://docs.conda.io/) to set up a build environment with all dependencies.
 
-First, make a local clone of this source repository on your machine.
-Then, from the `content` directory of the source repository, do this:
+First, make a local clone of this source repository on your machine. For example:
+
+```
+git clone https://github.com/ProjectPythia/projectpythia.github.io.git
+```
+
+Then, change working directories to the local repository's `content` directory:
+
+```
+cd projectpythia.github.io/content
+```
+
+Set up your a conda environment:
+
 ```
 conda env create -f ../ci/environment.yml
 conda activate pythia
 ```
 
-You can then build the site:
+You can then build the site with:
+
 ```
 make html
 ```
-and view the built site in your web browser with
+
+After building the site it may be possible to preview the portal in your web browser by simply opening the `index.html` file:
+
 ```
 open _build/html/index.html
 ```
 
+However, many of the links will not work. For all of the links found in the portal to work properly, you'll need to set up a local testing server. This can be done with Python's http.server by running the following command from within the `content` directory:
+
+```
+python -m http.server --directory _build/html/
+```
+
+and then pointing your browser at the URL: `localhost:8000`.
+
+More information on setting up a local test server is available from [here](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Learn/Common_questions/set_up_a_local_testing_server)
+
+
 You can find more details in the [Contributor's Guide](https://projectpythia.org/pages/contributing.html).