WiscWeb - WordPress UW Theme - Making documents available for download

In this document:

• Purpose and use
• Creating a Document post
• Adding the Documents Listing page element

Purpose and use

The Documents Listing page element will allow you to display a list of documents on a page. This page element can be used on a one-, two-, and three-column layout on your page.

This page element is useful for displaying documents like:

• Monthly meeting minutes
• Agendas
• Historical documents

Each document that you want to use on the page will have to have an associated Document custom post, which contains details about the document. You then choose which documents you want to display on a page by using the Documents Listing page element.

Document Pages use Document Types. They function similarly to Categories, but they are used specifically for documents. If you are maintaining a site which logs monthly minutes for a several meetings, you can create different Document Types (e.g. Staff Meeting and Student Meeting) for each meeting. This allows you to display just Staff Meeting minutes on one page, and just Student Meeting minutes on another.

The intent is to showcase a specific document (e.g. project charter, department mission statement) or set of Document Types (e.g. meeting minutes) for easy download or linking. When there is not a need to showcase or categorize, you can always just add documents as links in Text Blocks: WiscWeb - WordPress UW Theme - Text Block Page Element

Creating a Document post

Before displaying any Documents on pages with the listing page element, you must first create the custom posts themselves. Access these by clicking on Documents Page in the left hand column of your main WordPress administrator screen.

1. Click Add New to create a new document post
2. Add a Document Title
3. Provide a relevant Document Summary for this particular document
4. You can add a Document File to this particular document post
   • Please note: If you add a document file through this option, the site visitors will not be redirected to the Document Post itself, but rather will open or download the attached file (based on browser preference).
5. Add further information, context, and even images to this document post.
   • Please note: If you would rather have site visitors come to this post before being able to download a document, you can instead link to it in this text block.
6. On the right, apply any Document Type values that you would like to, including creating new document type values by clicking on the Add Document Type link and giving it a value.
   • Document Types allow you to categorize your document posts and control what displays on any given page using the Documents Listing page element. For example, if you wanted a page with meeting minutes, you could create document post with those meeting minute documents, add the Document Type "Meeting Minutes" to all of them.
     
     
7. Once you have made your edits, click the Publish button.

Adding the Documents Listing page element

To add the Documents Listing page element, navigate to your page and the column layout you want to add it to.

1. Click the Add Page Element button
2. Choose Documents Listing
   
   
   
3. Give this page element a Title
4. Choose what types of documents you want to be displayed (All documents, documents by type, or individual documents)
5. Choose if you want to Include Summary
6. Publish or Update your page to display this list

See Also:

• WiscWeb - WordPress UW Theme - Embedding Files from UW Box