I want to reopen this post at How to host files (PDF, documents) on your Webflow site with Dropbox. The issue still remains when using the Rich Text field, Paragraph and Text Field in Editor mode. There is no way to upload and attach a PDF or any other file for that matter. What can we do to get this fixed? Telling clients to use DropBox seems like a bad alternative.
Dropbox and Google Drive work OK, but still not a good flow for Editors updating static pages in Webflow. We just need that one additional link type adding to the Rich Text, Paragraph and other fields that allows us to upload a file into the standard assets folder and then attach it to a text link. Some of this works in Designer mode, but not in Editor mode. The most critical for me would be the Rich Text field.
You can see when I add a text link in a paragraph in Designer you get the option to upload a file.
When in Editor mode you do not get that last File option for the Link type.
The Rich Text field always has the File link type missing
WE NEED THIS BADLY!
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So for now what I did was create a Collection called “Downloads” which has a Name and File field.
So now when I need to insert a link to a PDF, I just copy and paste the upload URL in from the download file path.
https://uploads-ssl.webflow.com/A-BUNCH-OF-NUMBERS/2018-19_school_calendar.pdf
This seems like best way to make it work for now. Any other suggestions?
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Does anyone have a better way to do this? It is not a good workflow for clients. Ideally I would like client to be able to optimally upload PDFs while editing the Rich Text field on a status page.
Every other CMS I have ever used have had a way to do this in the Rich text editor. Why more people do not complain about this is beyond me. Is their some trick I am missing? I know how to use File fields in the CMS, but these are not CMS pages.
Should i create a collection for every page? Seems pointless.
Any help is appreciated.
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Why can I use them in Designer link fields and not in Editor?
@PixelGeek hey Nelson. Do you have any clue what is the official answer to this? Clients using the Editor need to upload PDFs to Pages and only way I see is putting them up in a collection, in Google Drive or Dropbox and linking externally to the URL. What is the best way? Is this a coming feature? We need it for Rich Text fields for sure.
I have a client that wants to be able to link to several PDF documents in the Visual Editor Rich Text block or something similar (not a Collection). Is there any way to make this work? They just have a simple employment form and a few other PDF files. I Have never seen a CMS without this so I figured there must be some way.
Thanks.
This is a major issue to say the least as almost every client has PDF forms that they want to use in Pages. Unique pages do not need to be in a Collection but they still may have PDF files that need to be attached.
So the only way I can see to do this is to convert Pages into a Collection somehow and the have a File Field? That does not seem like the proper way to setup plain Pages. Any other way to do this when in plain Pages?
Is DropBox my only real option for this?
Yes, correct, you will have to use a collection for this. The CMS relies on collections otherwise where would you store the PDF? You can create a collection and use a dynamic list to show a collection on a static page and build whatever components you’d like on it that way. You can limit the collection list to 1 item as well.
So what I did is create a Collection called “downloads” and one called “page-tags”.
- Page Tags simple has a name field with a tag created for each static page (i.e. about, history).
- The Downloads collection has fields for Name, File and Display Page (which is multi-ref for Page Tags collection).
- When a Download is added, you have to type in Name, Upload a file, and Select that Static Page Tag.
- One the Static template, I inserted a Collection List and I will filter it by that Page Tag so only downloads for a specific static page will be displayed.
Is this the best way? Seems like there must be a more efficient way to setup.
So since the page I am editing does not need a Collection, I see no reason why the Rich Text block cant upload files into the standard assets folder where all the images and other files are. That is all that is needed to fix this issue.
This explains the issue better How to host files (PDF, documents) on your Webflow site with Dropbox
Please merge this with How can I use the link chooser to point to PDF's or uploaded PDF files in Rich Text, Paragraph Fields?.
Hi @bgarrant - I completely agree.
I was blissfully unaware of this until a client tried to upload a file to a link there are trying to create within the Rich Text Field in the CMS.
I thought they were just overlooking the option. I was wrong.
This is a basic need for a CMS (in this case linking a PDF to a blog post article) - to ask the client to upload and link from Dropbox is not good enough.
I convinced this client to move from Squarespace to Webflow and now have a bit of explaining to do…
@PixelGeek is there another way I am missing?
I really love Webflow but this is a hard omission to accept. We are constantly seeing really new cool features being added but are missing some key basic CMS functionality.
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The only fix I know is using a collection as I mentioned. Not very user friendly for sure.
Yes, agreed, I just discovered this myself now, and I have been using Webflow for nearly 2 years! Thanks for the get-around idea. Webflow does some really cool things design-wise but it fails pretty badly on some of the basic requirements; Form auto-responders and multiple forms needing separate email recipients being another basic requirement that shouldn’t be an issue or on a waiting list.
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