How can I allow a visitor to download non-photo type files like a PDF?

Question

I want to put a pricing PDF on my SmugMug site for customers to download and print. The Standard SmugMug account only allows for photo and video type files. Can I upload it to a SmugVault to do that?

Answer 1

Background

There are many ways to do this, I will outline one of the easiest ways to do this using DropBox to store the PDF or other file.

As stated on the DropBox Website: "Dropbox is a free service that lets you bring your photos, docs, and videos anywhere and share them easily." Setup a free DropBox account by downloading the software and creating an account at the DropBox website.

Once you have an account setup, I would just use the DropBox website to add files. It is the easiest to understand for new users. You also have the option to use a folder on your computer to store/share/send files, but we won't cover that here.

The easiest way to share files with people who may or may not have DropBox is to use your Public Folder. You can simply get a link that you can share with anyone via your website, email, or anywhere else on the internet - that allows them to download the file.

Steps

After you have setup a DropBox account, navigate to your Public Folder and click the "Upload" button near the top center. Find your PDF or other file on your computer, and upload it.

This is an example of what a price list sitting in my DropBox Public Folder should look like. The naming is not important, but the folder is:

Next, you will want to click the drop down arrow that appears at the end of the file, and select "Copy Public Link":

At this point DropBox will give you a link(URL) to the PDF file. You could then give this link to anyone and they can access the file, even if they don't have DropBox.

The easiest way to add something like this directly to your site, would be to add it to the Custom Footer HTML in the SmugMug Advanced Site-Wide Customization Tool. The following is an example of how to do that using the DropBox public link:

If you followed the exact steps above, your footer should now display a link similar to this, which will either let the user Download the PDF and save it, or just view it using a browser or a PDF viewr:

You can extend this idea to apply to various situations. If you already have a custom navbar, you could easily make one of the navigation links direct to your DropBox file. You also could create an HTML only page that have the pricelist on it, and a link to the DropBox PDF for download. The ways to do this are endless, the above is just one example of a way to accomplish this!

If you have further questions about SmugVault, I would recommend opening up a separate question regarding storing and linking to files hosted on SmugVault, as that is quite a large topic in and of itself.

Answer 2

No you cannot. Smugmug is photo&video hosting service.

What you can do, is to put prices on some other host or in your public Dropbox folder (you can get Dropbox for free, if you do not have one) and provide link to this PDF document on your website.

Keep it simple :)