Adding a PDF, Powerpoint or MSWord Document

Preparing & Uploading the File

I should mention that you will need to be familiar with the (JCE) editor.

Preparing the file

Firstly, is the file suitable for the task?

Is it too big? - maybe the images inside it could be optimised.

If its a PDF - are the areas of text machine readable (can you select, copy and paste the text). Sometimes the program that creates the PDF can simply turn all the text into a big image, making the text look untidy (blocky), and making the file unneccesarily large, and making it impossible for search engines to index (read).

If its MSWord or Powerpoint - is it saved in a format/version that the intended users will all be able to access? Not everyone has the latest version of the software, so try to save it in as an older version. Furthermore, these applications are commercial (not free) so many people wont have them installed at all.

Does the name of the file have any spaces, apostrophies, or other special characters? If so, remove/replace them (underscore _ is the best for replacing spaces). Special characters may be interpreted as special commands by the browser, and things can go wrong.

Is the file name a sentence, or is it just too long?

Is the file name meaningful? Some years down the track, you (or someone else) may need to clean up the server. It is incredibly helpful if the file names indicate what the file actually is.

Uploading the File

You have to upload the file to a place that is on your web server. You can do that using a FTP program such as Dreamweaver, or Filezilla (free), but these instructions presume that you will use the native Media Manager that comes with Joomla.

Note that you cannot upload non-image files in the image upload manager that comes with the content editor (JCE), so that is why we are using the Media Manager.

You need to have administrator access (so that you can login to http://www.yoursite.com/administrator/ )

Once logged in, go to:
Site > Media Manager

The Media Manager allowse you to browse all the files and folders in www.yoursite.com/images/ (unless it has been configured to look in a folder other then "images"). The images folder is often used for all sorts of things, and some 3rd party components or plugins may set up folders in there automatically.

1. The file Upload button (for 1.0.x joomla versions, is different - look for it above the folder icons - closer to 2)

2. note this file address. The address after "/public_html/" needs to be copied later.

Its quite important to keep a tidy file structure inside the images folder. Dont be afraid to create new folders. In the future you may need to browse these files in a file browser that does not display a thumbnail image, so good organisation using folders will keep things from getting out of control.

Note that there is a folder called "stories". This is the folder that the image browser (in JCE content editor) is configured to look in.

So if a suitable folder does not exist, then create one - maybe call it 'files' or 'pdf' or whatever suits the purpose.

Now we want to upload a file to that folder, so click on the folder in Media Manager so that the browser displays the contents of the folder. Doing this also tells the file uploader where you want to place any uploaded files.

Click the "Browse files" button, and select the file on your computer taht you want to upload. Click "open", then "Start Upload" in the Media Manager.

NOTE - if a browse window does not pop up when you click the "Browse files" button, then you need to do the following:
In the Administration area Global Settings>System>Media Settings, Change Enable Flash Uploader to "No"

(Thanks to Adobe's new Flash10 browser plugin for this problem - 'onya Adobe!)

The file should now appear in the media manager after it has uploaded.

Forming the Correct Link to the File

At the top of the file icons is a web address to the currently selected folder (point 2 in the above screenshot) - something like:

The bit that we need to copy or memorise is "/images/stories/test2"

We then add the exact file name of our uploaded file to the end so that it looks like:

This is the (relative to site) URL to the file, but this won't always work for our needs - best make it an absolute URL. Add the address to your site at the beginning:

http://www.yourwebsite.com/images/stories/test2/exact_file_name.pdf

Copy this address [CTRL + C]. Maybe paste it into a notepad document to store it if you also choose to do the following step (construct an image button that people can click on to download the file).