Placing files for others to download
We’ve all been there. A client wants you to email a set of files for a rushed project. About as often as not a large file gets mangled in the email transfer. Email simply isn’t an efficient way to get a file to another party. A better way is to place it on your site for download and them email them a direct link to the file. They just click the link and the files… even very large ones… download reliably. This process is simple and works the same way no matter what system either is using… Mac or PC. It will take less time to do it than it will to read the description below.
The basic steps…
- Collect the files you want to transfer into a single folder
- Name the folder with an internet friendly name. Lettters, numbers, dashes and underscores only. No spaces or special characters.
- Right click (or optionally control click on a Mac) and select “Compress” (Mac) or “Send To Compressed (Zipped) Folder” (PC).
- A single compressed file will be created in the same location as the original folder. The compressed file will have the same name as the folder with the .zip extenstion added. The extension may not be visible depending on how you have system preferences set.
- Upload that file to your web site. If you do this often you might want to create a folder on your site just for this purpose. Call it “downloads”.
- Email the link to that file to your client. Assuming you started with a folder called “MyFolder” and placed the resulting compressed file into the “downloads” folder at the root level of your site, the link would be: http://www.example.com/downloads/MyFolder.zip
- When your client clicks on the link in your email their web browser will launch and the file(s) will begin downloading immediately. On most systems the compressed file will auto decompress once the download is complete and they will see a folder that looks just like the uncompressed “MyFolder” that you started with on your end.
Screen shots below… click them to view larger:
Right click and select Compress on Mac Systems
Compressed .zip file next to original folder in Mac Finder
Right click and choose send to zipped archive on Windows XP