How can I create a download link?

I have created a PDF file which I want my site's visitors to be able to download to their computer.

To test the idea, I put the PDF file in my site's root directory, and then put a regular html link to it on one of my site's pages. Here is the problem: When I click the link, the PDF file immediately opens in my Adobe reader.

That's not what I want to happen when the link is clicked. Instead, I want the browser to show a SAVE FILE box that will allow a visitor to download the PDF file to their computer.

Does anyone know what html code I can use for this purpose. For example, is there a special kind of link code that will do it?

Thank you

 

When you open a pdf file in a browser there is a "save a copy" button, so you can save it to your computer.. If that is not what you want then I am not sure if there is a special code to force it to download... You could zip the pdf file and link to that!

James

 

billybw, it's nothing to do with html but rather server configuration

http://www.stuvel.eu/pdfdownload - This explains it all - happy reading

 

Thanks for the replies. I looked at the article at http://www.stuvel.eu/pdfdownload, but don't know enough to be able to understand it.

I've been doing some other searching and found an article that says that it will work if I label or classify the PDF file as an "application". Does anyone know how to do that?
Thank you.

 

Upload the file to your root directory-no need to put the pdf tag on the end if it is already a pdf file...so just give it a name then use the code below.

<LI><a href="name of file.pdf" target="_blank">name of file</a>

Play around with this...hope it helps

 

Perhaps, you might want to zip the file

 

Or tell your visitors to do this:

Right click the link > Save target As...

And that way they can download it instead of opening it.

Good luck!