Linking to Files

[bitznbats]

Hey there

I am want to put the campgrounds newsletter up so that people can download it which folder do I put it in so that user can just type

www.mydomainname.com/newsletter.rar

do download it (it probably won't be a rar file thats just the firts extention that came to my head)

Thanks

lisa

[Meanderer]

Re: Linking to Files

Hi Lisa,
Normally, you'd publish all pages to your public_html folder. However, when you are building a website, one should think hard about what they want to achieve both in the short term and the long term. As VodaHost says, "Plan your work well and then work your plan!"

You haven't said exactly what what access you want to give to it. Members only? or general public?

If it is to be a restricted file then it would need to be in a password protected file. If not it can remain in your public_html file where everything else is published. However, have you thought about archiving??? Which means each would have to have it's own name. e.g. newsletter08april for example. Seeing they might build up in numbers over a period of time it might be wise to create a separate folder for them. You should then use a hyperlinking method to select the actual file they want to view.

I strongly suggest you publish them as a PDF document and provide a link for downloading a PDF reader. Although most people have a pdf reader (acrobat usually), I'd suggest other free readers that are MUCH smaller in files size. Acrobat is around 23mb to download whereas others are only 2 or 3 mb.

To create a pdf file, you can create your newsletter using MS Word or any other equivalent editor. To convert it, I use and recommend the program "PDF Creator" which is free here. All you is to use your print command in your Word Document (or other) and select 'PDF Creator' as your Printer. It converts it to a PDF file and displays it on your screen. You then save it to your file on your computer and use your FTP file manager to put upload it to your Server file (public_html or a subfolder you create there).

Benefits of PDF file is that it can display whatever fonts or images you use in your editor and compresses to a smaller, quicker to download file that can be read by ANY PDF reader. The recipient of the downlaod can print it and more importantantly CAN'T edit/modify it for malicious intent.

Just a reminder that you don't publish like you do in BV. You use your BV tools (FTP) to upload it to the server as the file extension will be .pdf

I hope that helps you and anyone else searching these threads for this type of requirement.
Regards,
Rick