Use these guidelines to make sure your PDFs are accessible and easy for you and your community to find.
Make sure you add your PDF or document to a page so your community can see it
- PDFs and documents that are uploaded to your assets do not automatically appear on your website.
- The first step is to upload your PDF or document to Assets. Follow our guide to upload your documents.
- The second step is to add your PDF or document to a page on your website in Sites by linking to it using the Rich text editor component. Follow our guide to link your PDF or document to a page.
PDF File naming
Only use letters, numbers and hyphens in file names. Other characters – like spaces, question marks, percent signs, commas and ampersands – will cause issues.
Use meaningful names and structure
- Your documents should have a meaningful file name prior to upload. For example, newsletter-term3-week3.pdf.
- Organise your files in a meaningful structure within Assets. This will make it easier for you to find them at a later time.
Upload multiple documents at once
- You can upload more than one file at a time to your assets to save time.
Make sure you add document properties
Before you add a PDF to your website, it is important that you add document properties.
These properties will display basic information about the document: title, author, subject and keywords.
This information is important for accessibility and search.
Metadata fields
Ensure there are no quote marks or semicolons in any of the metadata fields. These symbols break search for the whole site.
Separate keywords with commas, not semicolons. Example: keyword1, keyword2, keyword3
Steps to add PDF document properties – metadata
- Open the PDF.
- Select File.
- Select Properties.
- Enter the information in the fields: Title, Author and Keywords.
- Enter the Subject. Use less than 150 characters to summarise the document.
- Select OK.
- Save the document.