I create a specific folder for downloads and upload all files to that.

I then create the link in Wordpress, but be sure to copy the filename of the file you uploaded, because capitalisation, spelling etc are critical, and paste that into the url you create.

Best check is to see if you can access the file by simply typing the url into your browser address bar. As soo as you successfully access the file copy that url from your address bar to the link you're creating.

Cheers,

Martin.

Hi Viv

Martin is correct, I suspect that it may be an issue of capitalization. LINUX servers are very sensitive to that.

A couple of thoughts:

1 - If these PDF's are for sale, or if you would like to collect e-mail addresses before permitting downloads you could use e-Junkie:

E-junkie Shopping Cart for selling downloads & tangible goods

They will collect your users e-mail and send them a temporary download link. They also host the files and integrate with PayPal if you want to sell the e-books. It's really cheap - about 5 US dollars a month (make sure you search the web for coupons, you can always find a 3 or 4 month free coupon for eJunkie somewhere).

2 - If you are going to host the files yourself I would add a target="_blank" statement to your hyperlink, to open the PDF in a new window on those browsers that are setup to open the file (as opposed to downloading it). That way your main site will still be displayed.

Bill

P.S. Got your PM, sorry I haven't answered -been a crazy week with deadlines and all. I will respond to you very shortly, just wanted you to know I wasn't ignoring you!

Viv, Wordpress has the facility to upload media through it's own interface. If you look at the top of the box where you type in the text for a post, there are little icons for "add image", "add video", "add audio" and "add media". You can use the latter to upload your pdf's, then use it's url in your page/post as a download url. Works a treat.

Cheers

Audrey

Hi Viv,

I am glad you found a solution that works for you.

Keep in mind that you also need to be careful of using spaces in the filenames as that could be a cause of some problems too.

For example, in your original post, you mentioned the filename was:
"important reasons for detoxification.pdf"

but when you showed the url, the spaces were omitted
"hxxp://sitename.com/importantreasonsfordetoxification.pdf"

this won't work because the filenames are not identical.

I would avoid using spaces in filenames although you may not always be able to.
The problem with using spaces in filenames is that although the file is named:
"important reasons for detoxification.pdf",

for URL's you need to encode spaces as "%20" which is the "Hexcode" for a space.

So the file would be accessed in a URL as:
"hxxp://sitename.com/important%20reasons%20for%20detoxification.pdf"

To avoid all those issues, you could replace all spaces in the original filename with "-" (dashes). That way, "important-reasons-for-detoxification.pdf" is the same when used as a filename or as a URL.

Kevin

Hi Kevin

I did wonder if I had made an error with the file name and href being different so thanks for that clarification. That is why I showed how I had set things up so that if what I had done was incorrect someone would have picked that up and you did so that has helped me a lot, thank you

Cheers
Viv

Also if you are using Wordpress there are some great plugins for Sharing files. Simply go to wordpress (dot) org and search the plugin directory.

Search under:
Download Manager