WordPress lets you embed images really easily into your posts and pages but occasionally you need to add other types of files such as PDFs or Microsoft Word documents. The usual way of dealing with this is to upload the file to your WordPress website and then you can insert a link in your post or page which will then open the file using your local software. It isn’t possible to embed these into your post so that your users can see it (like images) because you need the proprietary software but with the Google Doc Embedder you now can!
Installation
As with most free plugins, all you need to do is search for the Google Doc Embedder and then follow the instructions for installation.
Types of files
The Google Doc Embedder can handle the following file types:
- Adobe PDF
- Microsoft Word (DOC/DOCX)
- Microsoft PowerPoint (PPT/PPTX)
- Microsoft Excel (XLS/XLSX)
- TIFF Images
- Adobe Illustrator (AI)
- Adobe Photoshop (PSD)
- XML Paper Specification (XPS)
- Archive Files (ZIP/RAR)
- and quite a few more …
Using the plugin
Using the Google Doc Embedder is very straightforward.
- Upload your file as usual using the Media uploader or Upload/Insert in your post/page
- Copy the file URL that you are given once the document has been uploaded
- In your post/page click the Google Doc Embedder button (if in Visual view) and then paste in the document URL, add the size you want (you can change it later) and if you want the user to be able to download a copy
- click Insert, save the post/page and then you can view it
You can edit the code it pastes in to change the height/width etc.
Settings and options
The settings page gives you a few choices as to how to display the document e.g. viewer type, default size, tracking, downloads etc.
For more information about the plugin, it’s uses and how to use it, check out the official write-up on wordpress.org and the Google Doc Embedder website (this has additional shortcodes and styling info).
Summary
This plugin is very easy to use and makes displaying non-image files on your site simple.li
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