Re: HTML to allow users to download a file

by Michael Jon Muehlendorf <haoka(at)wi.tds.net>

Date:	Mon, 07 May 2001 16:30:32 -0500
To:	"Ed Peddycoart" <ed(at)celticblues.com>, "HWG-Basics" <hwg-basics(at)hwg.org>
In-Reply-To:	celticblues
	todo: View Thread, Original

Hello Ed!

You can take a couple of approaches here. The example link that you listed
would work fine...the user clicks on the link, and they are offered
download options. I do know this, however...IE 5.5 (I don't know about
earlier versions) will sometimes open the file for viewing. That is, in
your case, it may start Excel and display the spreadsheet on the fly. If
you want an alternative to this, compress your file with WinZip, or a
similar compression program. This pretty much assures that it will be
downloaded when the link is clicked. (Of course, you have to change the
filename in your link to reflect the ".ZIP" extension.) The drawback is
that everyone will have the added step of "unzipping" the file once they
get it to their local drive.

HTH,

Mike

At 11:53 AM 5/7/01 -0500, Ed Peddycoart wrote:
>I want to include a link on my website that the users can click to download
>an excel spreadsheet, or some other type of file.  How do I do this?  Do I
>simply put..
>
><a href=3D"ftp://celticblues.com/file.xls">Download File</a>?
>
>Ed
>
>---------------------------------------
>Ed Peddycoart
>CG=B2, Inc.
>---------------------------------------
>"Character is doing your best when
> nobody is watching."
> ~ to J. C. Watts by his father
>---------------------------------------
>
>

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