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Providing links to actual files instead of webpages

Suppose you have a file (Word document, rtf file, excel file, or whatever) you want other people to be able to retrieve from your website so they can open and manipulate it just as if they had created it on their own computer. Instead of pasting it into a webpage, you can put the file in a folder on your web, and (on a webpage of your choice) create a link to the file itself.  [jump down to "how to create the link to a file"]

Here's an example, using an .rtf file [How and Why the .rtf file], followed by two examples of the same text displayed on a webpage by pasting (two ways) from Word.

  • This is the link to the .rtf file: "Owed to the Spellchecker".  You can either:

    • right-click the file and choose "Save Target As", which will let you copy the file to any location of your choice on your own computer or network drives. This lets you open the file in Word and take complete control of all aspects of the file.

    • or, left-click the link, which will cause the file to open in the "Word within the browser" mode. It prints using the same rules as if you just opened it in Word, but not all of the menu items and toolbar buttons will be available. You can change the font size, page margins, etc.

    • It may pop up a little window asking for a username and password. If so, just click "Cancel" and it will go ahead with the document.

    • If it just sits and sits for a long time, the pop-up may have appeared behind the windows you are seeing. Look for a button at the right end of the taskbar and click it to bring the permission window to the front so you can click "Cancel".

  • For comparison, this is a link to a webpage version: "Owed to the Spellchecker". It was created using these steps:

    • In Word, Select All, then Copy

    • In FrontPage, with a new page already open for editing, "Paste"

    • Save the html file

  • And for more comparison, this is a link to another (simpler) webpage version: "Owed to the Spellchecker". It was created using the same steps in the example directly above, Except in the new FrontPage page, instead of "Paste", I used "Paste Special" and selected "Normal Paragraphs".

 

 

 

 

 

 

.rtf files: How and Why
  • How: You can save a file (created in Microsoft Word) as an .rtf file
    • do File > Save As
    • down in the box labelled "Save as type:", drop down the list (using the little triangle at the right end of the space) and choose "Rich Text Format (*.rtf)".
  • Why: The motivation for choosing .rtf instead of the normal Word format (.doc) is to make it accessible to users who do not have MS Word installed on their computer. Rich text format is a simpler, more universal, format for word processor files--many different word processor programs are able to convert and use a file in Rich Text Format.
how to create the link to a file
  • Copy the file into a folder in your web
    • Create and save the file on your computer or network folder as you normally do (remember where).
    • In FrontPage, get to where you can see the "Folders" view.
    • Highlight the folder in your web where you want the file to be stored.
    • Do File > Import
    • In the Import dialog, find and click the "Add File" button.
    • The resulting dialog works just like the "Save As" dialog of Word. Navigate to the place where you saved the file, highlight it, and click "Open"
    • Instead of opening the file, it will take you back to the earlier dialog, but show your file listed in the larger space in the middle of the dialog.
    • Down at the bottom, click "OK"
    • That should copy your file into the web folder you had highlighted in FrontPage.
  • Create the link to the file
    • In FrontPage, edit the webpage on which you want to place the link to your file.
    • Type whatever words you want your user to see to click on to get your file. (In the example above, the words are "Owed to the Spellchecker')
    • Highlight those words and do Ctrl-K (i.e. hold down the Ctrl key and tap the letter "K"). This is equivalent to menu procedure Insert > Hyperlink.
    • At the top of the resulting dialog, in the "Look in:" space, navigate to the folder in your web where you saved the file in the steps above.
    • Then your file (all files in that folder) should show in the large middle space. Highlight the file you want to link.
    • Near the bottom right, to the right of "Target window:", click the little square with the pencil.
    • In the list that pops up, highlight "New Window"
    • Click "OK" in that box, and "OK" in the box it returns you to.
    • Save the page you are working on--that's all!
    • As with any other changes you make to a web page, if you are testing the page in your browser (highly recommended!), you will need to click the "Refresh" button to make it reload the page with your latest changes.