Linking to a PDF

One common task for editors is to make a PDF file available for download from your website. While this seems like a trivial task, it actually involves a series of steps that is best spelled out explicitly.

  1. First, on the page where you want to link to the PDF, scroll to the bottom of the editing form, to the section entitled “Associated Media,” shown below:

    ../../_images/file-upload.png
  2. If the PDF has not yet been uploaded to your site, click the “Choose File” button to select from files on your computer. (Alternately, click the “Select from existing images” button and switch to the “Upload File” tab once the popup window opens.)

    Once you have selected a file, the space will look something like this (it depends on your browser):

    ../../_images/file-upload-filled.png
  3. Then click the “Upload Now” button, which will generate a popup window for the Media Browser:

    ../../_images/file-upload-gallery.png
  4. Make sure you have selected your just-uploaded file, and click the “Use selected media” button in the upper right corner. This will close the popup window, and will insert your new attachment at the bottom of your page, as here:

    ../../_images/file-upload-confirmed.png
  5. The highlighted line, just beneath “Direct URL,” is the full URL to your uploaded file. Select and copy that URL.

    Then return to your body copy, and select the text to which you want to attach the link to the PDF. Click the “Insert Link” icon in the toolbar (which resembles a chain link), and a window will open where you can paste in the URL you copied earlier. Submit by clicking “Insert Link,” and voilà, you now have a link to your PDF!

    ../../_images/link-browser.png
  6. You can repeat this process as many times as you need to. And once a PDF has been uploaded to the site, you can re-use it, or link to it, on as many different pages as you wish.

    Linking to already-uploaded PDFs is even easier: Just select the text you want to be a link, and click the “Insert Link” button in the toolbar.

    Rather than tracking down the PDF and entering the URL manually, just switch to the “Media Storage” tab, locate the PDF, and click to automatically insert a link to it.

    ../../_images/file-gallery-already-uploaded.png