Lesson 2: Editing Basic Pages: CKEditor and Files

You will need to upload attachment files (PDFs, Word Documents, etc.) as page attachments and then create a link within your body content text using the URL of the attachment file.

  1. When on the Edit tab for a page, locate the ATTACHMENTS box at the bottom of the page, near the Save and Preview buttons. If you are working on a Landing Page, you will have to switch from the Layout tab to the Edit tab to upload files and obtain their URLs.

  2. Once a file has been uploaded, you will see it listed within the ATTACHMENTS box. Right-click the filename and select "Copy Link Location" or "Copy Link Address" (wording depends on your web browser).

  3. Important! If you are working with a Landing Page, select the Save button now, before switching to the Layout tab. Otherwise, your uploaded file will not be saved properly on the server.

  4. Go into your body content, find or create a passage of text that describes the document, then highlight it and select the link button. Paste in the URL for the file, delete the 'https://servername.gatech.edu' part, and select the Save button.

You now will have a link within your text that opens the attached file for the site visitor.

Replacing an Existing File

The steps above will work for replacing an existing file. Just upload the new file first, and then optionally delete the old file.

Important! Deleting a file from the ATTACHMENTS area does not actually delete the file itself from the filesystem. If you need to securely delete a file so that it can never be accessed again, contact the college web developer for assistance (be sure to send the URL for the file in question).

Additional Note: It is not possible to replace a file and maintain the same file URL, as every upload will get a unique URL path. If there's any chance that a file will need to be updated, do not send out the direct URL for it to anyone. Instead, reference it on a website page and send out the URL for that page with instructions to download the file from that page. That way, the URL you send out will continue to work, even if the file has to be updated/replaced in the future.