Linking Uploaded Files to your Website & Emails

Adding content and information to your website will not only keep your customers coming back for more, but it will make them more informed about the operations and activities of your farm. An easy way to add content is by linking uploaded files to your website and attaching files to your emails. This is especially helpful if you have created a document using outside software, for example, a flyer designed in Adobe InDesign or a spreadsheet compiled in Microsoft Excel.

This article will teach you how to upload and link to files and covers the following topics:

  Uploading a File
  Linking to a File
  Attaching a File to an Email
  Linking to a Webpage

Uploading a File

The first thing you will need to do is upload your file into your Control Panel. Log in and navigate to:

  *Create Content > Upload Files*

Click the "Browse" button to find the file you wish to upload in the saved documents of your computer. If you wish, you can write a file description to make it easier to identify your file. Click the Upload File button when you are finished.Your newly uploaded file will appear in the "Manage Files" list.

Linking to a File

Now that you have a file uploaded, you can link to it on your website. To create a link you will be using the Rich Text Editor. Therefore, anywhere there is a Rich Text Editor in the Control Panel, you can use this to create a link to a file. Most likely you will want to use this in Farmer Defined Pages, Blog Entries, or when creating Content. The basic instructions on how to create a link are as follows, however, to learn more about links, read the Creating a Hyperlink article.

To create a link in a Rich Text Editor:

1. Log in to the Control Panel and navigate to the place where you want to create content with a link.
   
2. Highlight the text that you want to attach the link to.
   
3. Click on the button the text editor that looks like a chain link. This is the hyperlink button.
   
4. In the "Insert/Edit Link" box, use the "Link List" pull down menu to find your file. Uploaded files are usually at the bottom of this list.
   
5. Select the file you'd like to link to and click the Insert button.

Notice that the text you highlighted is now blue & underlined; this indicates that it is an active link! Save you changes in the Rich Text Editor to complete the process of linking a file to your website. Now, open your public site and navigate to the place where you created your link to make sure it works.

Attaching a File to an Email

Attaching a file to an email is almost exactly the same as inserting a link into your website since you use the Rich Text Editor to compose your emails. The basic instructions on how to create a link are as follows, however, to learn more about links, read the Creating a Hyperlink article. To begin, log in to the Control Panel and navigate to:

   Connect > Mailing List >Send Mail

or if you are using Member Assembler mail navigate to: Member Assembler > Members > Send Emails

Then follow these steps:

1. Enter in your Subject for the email. (For example: CSA Survey Request)
   
2. Enter your email copy in the Rich Text Editor
   
3. Highlight the text that you want to attach the link to.
   
4. Click on the button the text editor that looks like a chain link. This is the hyperlink button.
   
5. In the "Insert/Edit Link" box, use the "Link List" pull down menu to find your file. Uploaded files are usually at the bottom of this list.
   
6. Select the file you'd like to link to and click the Insert button.

Notice that the text you highlighted is now blue & underlined; this indicates that it is an active link! Now just finish composing your email and adjusting your settings. (For more information on sending emails, read the Creating User Groups and Sending Emails article.) Make sure to test the link when you receive the test email in your inbox.

Linking to a Webpage

You can link to other webpages on your website or in your emails in the same way that you can link to files. When creating your link, instead of choosing a file from the "Link List" pull down menu (after you highlighted your text and clicked on the hyperlink button), simply type (or copy & paste) the website's URL (Uniform Resource Locator, aka website address) into the "Link URL" field. You can find a website's URL by going to the website and looking in the address bar of your browser. For example, if you wanted to link to the Small Farm Central website, you would type in http://www.smallfarmcentral.com. Then simply follow the rest of the instructions according to where you were inserting the link.

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