Information Resources & Technology (IRT)–

Add Downloadable Documents

Certain common documents, such as Microsoft Word (.doc), Excel (.xls) and Powerpoint (.ppt), as well as Acrobat (.pdf), can be added to your site as downloadable files. The user must have the appropriate editing or viewing software to make use of such documents. You will need a sample file for this exercise. Here are two you can use:

Sample Word Doc | Sample PDF

Watch Demo

Step 1: Make the file ready for the Web

  1. All files used in Web sites, including downloadable documents, should avoid spaces and special characters in the file name
  2. If working with your own document, examine the file on your computer's desktop
    • Re-name the file to remove any spaces or special characters
    • You can use dashes (-) or underscores (_) instead of spaces
    • The file must have the correct extension, e.g. ".doc" for Word documents or ".pdf" for Acrobat documents

Step 2: Place document within local site files

  1. Still on your computer's desktop, find and open your site's local folder
  2. Look for a folder at the site's root named "files" or "documents" or perhaps "secure"; if you don't find one of these, create a new folder named "documents"
  3. Move your sample document into this folder

Step 3: Upload file and link to it

  1. Switch to Dreamweaver; you may want to right/ctrl-click on the list of files and select "Refresh Local Files" to update the list
  2. Find an open the "documents" folder by double-clicking on it
  3. Select the document within and click the Put button in the files panel
  4. Open the page you want to link from, e.g. my_project/index.html or root/my_page.html
  5. Create a new link to the file the same way you would if linking to a page, i.e. using the Browse button or the Point to File button
    • Because the user must have appropriate software, it is customary to warn them in the link text that the link is to a downloadable file, e.g. "Application Form (PDF)"
  6. Save, Put and switch to the browser to reload and validate by clicking the link

Important note

The version of the document linked from the Web page is completely independent of the original file. Any changes you make to your document on your computer will not be reflected in the online version unless you either:

  1. Upload the edited document under the exact same file name, overwriting the original, OR
  2. Upload a new edited version under a new file name, and re-link

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