Uploading Documents to WordPress

Sometimes nothing says lovin’ like a little PDF action. If you’re looking to upload a PDF, Word Document or other type of file (other than an image) to WordPress, and then add it to a post or page on your site, here’s how to do just that:

  1. In the WordPress Page or Post Editor, click the camera/music note icon next to the words Upload/Insert (above the content editor) as shown here.
  2. Click Select Files and choose the file or files you want to upload from your computer. Once the file has uploaded, details about it will be shown below the main uploader.
  3. In the Title field, you can type in whatever text you want the link to the file to read, such as “Download this PDF” or “Click Here to Download our PowerPoint Presentation”, etc.
  4. Click the File URL button a little further down the page (you can leave everything else blank.
  5. Click Insert Into Post, and a link will be added to the post or page you’re working on.

You’re all set! Now your users can download any files you choose to provide. Here are a few helpful hints on file downloads though:

  • I typically recommend adding content from a PDF or other type of document to your website as website content rather than having users download and open a file. The main reasons for this are:
    • When you provide them with a download, now they’re off in some other program, rather than on your website (where they are more likely to contact you, buy a product, etc.)
    • Downloads require the user to know how to open a file. This sounds rudimentary, but not all users are created equal, and some won’t have a way of opening a PDF file, for example, without installing additional software.
  • If you are going to upload a file for users to then download, I recommend exporting Word Documents, spreadsheets and most other types of files as PDFs. This way, when the user downloads the file and opens it, it will look to them like it did to you. On the other hand, if I download a Word Document to my Mac that you made on your Windows machine, for example, you may have used a bunch of fonts I don’t have, which will change how the document looks and possibly even how it’s laid out, and also when I open that Word Doc with my version of Word or the Mac equivalent, Pages, the formatting could be drastically changed from what you originally intended as well.

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