{"id":169,"date":"2022-05-11T21:17:11","date_gmt":"2022-05-11T21:17:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/digitaldocumentation.wustl.edu\/doc-central\/?page_id=178"},"modified":"2022-05-11T21:23:15","modified_gmt":"2022-05-11T21:23:15","slug":"pdfs","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/digitaldocumentation.wustl.edu\/hereandnext\/web-best-practices-guidelines\/media-best-practices\/pdfs\/","title":{"rendered":"PDF\u2019s"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

We do not recommend linking to PDFs or other documents for download.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PDF’s are not ideal for two reasons:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

  1. They do not meet accessibility standards. People who use web readers cannot read information in PDFs unless the PDFs are created to be accessible. University and other websites have been sued for not providing critical information in a way that all users can consume.<\/li>
  2. The content in them is not being crawled by search engines, so users cannot search for and easily find that information on your website. (This also affects your SEO)<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    For these reasons, we highly recommend digitizing PDFs (or adding relevant information) directly to a new or existing webpage in your website.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    However, we also recognize that there may be the rare occasion where you need to keep the PDF available for download, as-is. To link to a PDF or document, follow these steps:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    1. Upload the PDF or document to the media library.<\/li>
    2. Once the document is uploaded, click on the thumbnail in the media library.<\/li>
    3. In the Attachment Details screen that pops up, copy the url.<\/li>
    4. Go to the page you want to add the document to.<\/li>
    5. Select the text or button you want to link, just as if you are inserting a regular link.<\/li>
    6. Click the link icon and paste the url into the blank field.<\/li>
    7. You should clearly indicate that the user is going to open a PDF when clicking on this link by adding (PDF)<\/strong> to the link text or button text.
      Example: Download the College Fair Handbook (PDF)<\/strong><\/li><\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      We do not recommend linking to PDFs or other documents for download. PDF’s are not ideal for two reasons: They do not meet accessibility standards. People who use web readers cannot read information in PDFs unless the PDFs are created to be accessible. University and other websites have been sued for not providing critical information […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"parent":351,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nPDF\u2019s - Here and Next<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"PDF\u2019s - Here and Next\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"We do not recommend linking to PDFs or other documents for download. PDF’s are not ideal for two reasons: They do not meet accessibility standards. People who use web readers cannot read information in PDFs unless the PDFs are created to be accessible. University and other websites have been sued for not providing critical information […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/digitaldocumentation.wustl.edu\/hereandnext\/web-best-practices-guidelines\/media-best-practices\/pdfs\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Here and Next\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-05-11T21:23:15+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/digitaldocumentation.wustl.edu\/hereandnext\/web-best-practices-guidelines\/media-best-practices\/pdfs\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/digitaldocumentation.wustl.edu\/hereandnext\/web-best-practices-guidelines\/media-best-practices\/pdfs\/\",\"name\":\"PDF\u2019s - Here and Next\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/digitaldocumentation.wustl.edu\/hereandnext\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2022-05-11T21:17:11+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-05-11T21:23:15+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/digitaldocumentation.wustl.edu\/hereandnext\/web-best-practices-guidelines\/media-best-practices\/pdfs\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/digitaldocumentation.wustl.edu\/hereandnext\/web-best-practices-guidelines\/media-best-practices\/pdfs\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/digitaldocumentation.wustl.edu\/hereandnext\/web-best-practices-guidelines\/media-best-practices\/pdfs\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/digitaldocumentation.wustl.edu\/hereandnext\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Best Practices & Guidelines\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/digitaldocumentation.wustl.edu\/hereandnext\/web-best-practices-guidelines\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"Media best practices\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/digitaldocumentation.wustl.edu\/hereandnext\/web-best-practices-guidelines\/media-best-practices\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":4,\"name\":\"PDF\u2019s\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/digitaldocumentation.wustl.edu\/hereandnext\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/digitaldocumentation.wustl.edu\/hereandnext\/\",\"name\":\"Here and Next\",\"description\":\"Just another digitaldocumentation.wustl.edu Sites site\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/digitaldocumentation.wustl.edu\/hereandnext\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"PDF\u2019s - Here and Next","robots":{"index":"noindex","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"PDF\u2019s - Here and Next","og_description":"We do not recommend linking to PDFs or other documents for download. PDF’s are not ideal for two reasons: They do not meet accessibility standards. People who use web readers cannot read information in PDFs unless the PDFs are created to be accessible. University and other websites have been sued for not providing critical information […]","og_url":"https:\/\/digitaldocumentation.wustl.edu\/hereandnext\/web-best-practices-guidelines\/media-best-practices\/pdfs\/","og_site_name":"Here and Next","article_modified_time":"2022-05-11T21:23:15+00:00","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/digitaldocumentation.wustl.edu\/hereandnext\/web-best-practices-guidelines\/media-best-practices\/pdfs\/","url":"https:\/\/digitaldocumentation.wustl.edu\/hereandnext\/web-best-practices-guidelines\/media-best-practices\/pdfs\/","name":"PDF\u2019s - Here and Next","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/digitaldocumentation.wustl.edu\/hereandnext\/#website"},"datePublished":"2022-05-11T21:17:11+00:00","dateModified":"2022-05-11T21:23:15+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/digitaldocumentation.wustl.edu\/hereandnext\/web-best-practices-guidelines\/media-best-practices\/pdfs\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/digitaldocumentation.wustl.edu\/hereandnext\/web-best-practices-guidelines\/media-best-practices\/pdfs\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/digitaldocumentation.wustl.edu\/hereandnext\/web-best-practices-guidelines\/media-best-practices\/pdfs\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/digitaldocumentation.wustl.edu\/hereandnext\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Best Practices & Guidelines","item":"https:\/\/digitaldocumentation.wustl.edu\/hereandnext\/web-best-practices-guidelines\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Media best practices","item":"https:\/\/digitaldocumentation.wustl.edu\/hereandnext\/web-best-practices-guidelines\/media-best-practices\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":4,"name":"PDF\u2019s"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/digitaldocumentation.wustl.edu\/hereandnext\/#website","url":"https:\/\/digitaldocumentation.wustl.edu\/hereandnext\/","name":"Here and Next","description":"Just another digitaldocumentation.wustl.edu Sites site","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/digitaldocumentation.wustl.edu\/hereandnext\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"}]}},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"Here and Next","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/digitaldocumentation.wustl.edu\/hereandnext","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaldocumentation.wustl.edu\/hereandnext\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/169"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaldocumentation.wustl.edu\/hereandnext\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaldocumentation.wustl.edu\/hereandnext\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaldocumentation.wustl.edu\/hereandnext\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaldocumentation.wustl.edu\/hereandnext\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=169"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/digitaldocumentation.wustl.edu\/hereandnext\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/169\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":350,"href":"https:\/\/digitaldocumentation.wustl.edu\/hereandnext\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/169\/revisions\/350"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaldocumentation.wustl.edu\/hereandnext\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/351"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaldocumentation.wustl.edu\/hereandnext\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=169"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}