Please note this article was first published in 06 Oct 2009. Its content may now be out of date. We recommend taking a look at more recent website building blog posts or check out our comprehensive support pages. If you are looking for information on our 14 day free website builder trial we have a large number of webpages that guide you throug the process.
There are many situations where websites offer visitors and customers the facility to download documents such as word documents, excel sheets or PDF’s (Printable Document Format). As a website builder, you may need to provide enormous amounts of information, which customers or visitors may need to refer to again and again. Placing this much text onto your WebPages will result in visitors scrolling endlessly, which can be very frustrating. Allowing them to download the info in one document, means they can save it to their computer for future reference as and when required. It also helps you to keep the design of your pages clean and punchy.
Documents such as Applications, Information, Guides, Booklets, Detailed Literature, Publications, Product Lists, Product Spec, Accounts Documents, Membership etc., etc………… are common reasons for document downloads.
One other huge benefit will be the carbon footprint reduction. By using digital rather than paper, it’s a greener way of operating, which will be seen in a very positive and favourable light as more and more of us think about the environment and its sustainability. Printing and photocopying are processes, which are both expensive and environmentally unfriendly. Digital documents cut the amount of printing and photo-copying required and enables users to view, save and share documents with customers and colleagues in an entirely digital format. It reduces the need to produce paper, and reduces it’s use, it’s waste, it’s storage (both space and the need for folders etc) and it’s delivery (envelopes, fuel, pollution). The consumption associated with paper is enormous and can be avoided by using digital documents. You don't have to be a tree hugger to want to protect the world you live in.
Your DotGO Website comes with 5MB of storage already included for FREE. This is actually quite a lot of space particularly if you’re using .pdf files, which are very compact. This is generally enough storage for most peoples needs. However if you want to upload a lot of documents then you may need to add extra space, which is available via a simple upgrade from your control panel for just £2.50 per month per 10MB.
We do recommend, if possible to upload documents in .pdf format as being a more compact file format, will download quicker and it will be write protected and so prevents plagiarism.
You can produce PDF’s very easily these days, especially as there are some great free software products, which can create professional quality PDF files from almost any printable document. CutePDF Writer is one of the better products, which you can find very easily online by typing its name into a Google search and then download free. To crate a PDF from a Word documents, simply File> Print > and then from the drop down menu of Printers, (your normal printer will be shown at the top of the list) scroll down and choose CutePDF Writer. It doesn’t actually print the document but just saves a copy of it as a PDF in your chosen folder.
You can use documents in formats: Microsoft Word , PDF, Text files, Zipped files , MS PowerPoint files, Microsoft Excel.
Go to your control panel and in the buttons down the left of the window, click the Upload Files (Manage Pictures and Files). Select “Documents”, browse for your document and click upload. Now - Go to the page on your site where you want the download link to be on and enter the text for the link i.e. an instruction line such as “Click here to download Our Information Guide”. Highlight the text using your mouse and click the yellow link icon in the editor bar. Select File > documents, then select from the drop down list the document you want to link to. Click Add to website. Save the page and click on the text to test the link.
Please remember, this article was first published 06/10/2009. The content may be out of date and you cannot post comments any more. Please check out our new blog.
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