# How to make a Word file downloadable



## melonhead (May 6, 2002)

Hi. I'm new to this, so please bear with me!

I have some Word documents that I want website viewers to be able to download to their computer and use as templates. 

I have FrontPage and Expression but can't find how to do this with either one. 

I've searched the net and here but can't seem to find the right words to pull up what I am looking for.

Thanks for your help in advance.


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## namenotfound (Apr 30, 2005)

Just link to it. In my browser (Firefox), when I click on a .doc link on a website, it downloads it.

I'm not sure how IE would behave, but I'm assuming the same way FF does.


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## melonhead (May 6, 2002)

I tried linking a Word document, but it says the website cannot be found when I click on the hyperlink to open it. While the files are still local on my computer and I test, it opens up the Word document. But once I publish it to my website that will not open it.

Thanks so much for your suggestion. Any others?


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## namenotfound (Apr 30, 2005)

Do you have a space in the file name? Example: "my test.doc"

If so then use %20 like this "my%20test.doc" (you use %20 as a filler for spaces, so the link is all one word)

OR, you could use a hyphen or underscore, such as "my-test.doc" or "my_test.doc" (of course, you need to rename the file and add the hyphen or underscore first)

It would help if you could post what you're trying to link to, that is, post the link html you're using so I can see how you're doing it.


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## MMJ (Oct 15, 2006)

You are probably linking to it locally (file://).

Make sure the link is relative, not absolute.


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## melonhead (May 6, 2002)

Well, I tried all above and then I discovered how to do it in Expression. Here were the directions I found in help. I can't remember what I finally used to search for - but it works so...

In Design view or Code view, in your web page, select the tag. 
In the Behaviors task pane, click Insert, and then click Go to URL. 
In the Go To URL dialog box, specify the URL for the page or file you want to redirect the site visitor to and click OK.

Thanks for the help! Your suggestions led me to searching for the right thing so I really appreciate everything.


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