How to Send an Attachment in WordPress

1. Introduction:

You’ve tried to send a coworker an email with a document attachment, but it’s just not working out. Here’s how to do it in WordPress.

If you’re like me, you’ve tried to send big files to a coworker as an email with a document attachment. They don’t reply and you start deleting the attachment. So here is how it works:

– Create a new file in your WordPress plugin folder called “Attachments”
– Add the following code to the file immediately below your plugins list: $filename”; } $vars[‘shortcode_any_file’] = array(‘filename’ => ‘document-attachment’, ‘txt’ => ‘document-attachment’); ?>
– Save and close the file.

You can now send attachments to your coworker directly from within WordPress via their email tool (usually your corporate email provider). The plugin is pretty simple, and it works very well with Gmail and Google Drive. If you want to make it even more awesome, there are plugins that convert Word documents into PDF files, or convert them into HTML files (which can be better viewed on web browsers), or into both PDF and HTML files on the same computer (which can be great for sharing documents with coworkers who use desktop word processors).

2. How to Send an Attachment in WordPress

This is something often forgotten to do when it comes to attaching files to an email. You can’t just copy and paste the file into the email. It has to be a new document, with a unique name. And you have to know how to open it when you get it from the server. The following steps will tell you how:

1) Upload the file using your favorite uploader plugin (e.g. FileZilla or FileZilla for Linux).
2) Add a folder as an attachment, like this:
3) Confirm that the filename is identical to what you want the attachment name to be (e.g. if it’s called “test_content”, then rename it “test_content_1″).
4) Set the file type as a MIME type (such as image/gif or image/png). If you’re not sure what MIME type your file has, check here.
5) Click save or publish (or whatever button your plugin gives you), and then send / share / … with your colleagues!

3. Step One: Create a New Post

I came across this post some time ago and decided to give it a try. It’s not that complicated. But it does involve a bit more work than just creating a new post.
For this, you need to have your WordPress site set up as a Media Library (which is also how you create “WordPress blogs” in the first place). You can find out how to do that by clicking here

Once you’ve done that, click “Edit Post” on the left-hand side of the screen (it should be highlighted in blue) and then go to the “Edit” tab at the top of the screen (the one with all your customizations on it) and click “Attachments”.
Here you will see all kinds of different types of attachments but I will show you how to attach one specific form type:

Hopefully, now you have an understanding of what each of these different attachments is and which ones you would use for each specific purpose. For example, if your boss or co needs some plain-text instructions for something (like sending them instructions for using their desktops), then we would select “Document File-type – Plain Text Document”. If they want some screenshots, then we would select “Photo File-type – Screenshot or Avi File”. If they want a video file, then we would select “Video File-type – Video Clip or Quicktime File”. And so on…
Most importantly: make sure you are selecting the right type of attachment before uploading it!

4. Step Two: Click on the “Add Media” Button

The goal of this step is to get your coworker to email you a document attachment. This is not like “I have a document (XML) file” or “I have an attachment (HTML) file”, where the other person simply clicks it. This is more difficult — there are lots of different kinds of files and formats, and it can be hard to figure out what a colleague wants from you.
One way to do this is with the addition of an “Add Media” button in your WordPress dashboard under the “Address Book” tab. In order for this to work, both of you need to have the same email address associated with your WordPress account.

Then set that email address as one of your collaborators’ email addresses (you can use different ones for each collaborator, but I don’t recommend doing this). The settings for adding an email address associated with each collaborator should look something like this:

Your collaborator’s emails will now show up in their own list under the “Email address” column in WordPress. If you want your collaborator to be able to search for attachments, or send big files yourself, change the contacts list so that those are visible instead of being hidden by default.

5. Step Three: Upload Your File

If you want to send an email to a coworker with a document attachment, here’s how:

1. Open your email program and create an attachment.

2. You can use any text editor for this step, however, the following guides are most commonly used:

3. Save the file as “docx.doc” and send it to your colleague via email.
That is it! Your colleague will open the file and will have to follow the steps below to open it in their own email program:

1. Click on “File” -> “New Attachment” -> “Word document” or “PDF file” or whatever you want
2. Fill in any fields as usual (but remember that you can make this field optional by clicking on the “X” button)
3. Click on the “OK” button on your screen (or just click anywhere if you are not sure what to do)
4. Now go back to your email program

6. Step Four: Insert the File into Your Post

If you have ever tried to send an email attachment with a document as a file attachment in WordPress, then you are familiar with the double-click “File” menu. That is how to send an attachment in WordPress. Unfortunately, that menu is for inserting text, not for sending it as a file.

But don’t worry: there are still plenty of ways to get your document into the post. The trickiest one I found was to copy the text of your HTML and paste it into your editor in plain text format and then format it for email……
If you want to use any fancy formatting on your file (i.e., bold, italic, etc.) then you can do that too, but if you want to use any fancy formatting on the HTML itself (i.e., italicize, bold) then you need to go through the process again and select “File” -> “Save As” -> “HTML & Text -> HTML & Text Document -> Plain Text” and then save the plain text file as an attachment in WordPress. Once saved please copy any formatting or customizations that you would like to keep on your HTML file and paste them directly into your editor without losing them while sending it as an email.
This is probably not very helpful information but if this post helps anyone else it will have been worth it!

Conclusion:

With these easy steps, you’ll be able to send attachments in WordPress like a pro!
This post is about how to send an attachment to WordPress. It is not about how to send a document attachment in WordPress, but rather how to send a document attachment that is safe, secure, and reliable.
WordPress offers a powerful file type called image/gif, but many people are confused when they try to send an image or GIF to their coworkers, because often their coworkers don’t understand the file type, and the sender might not understand either.

The best way for your coworkers to remember what you want them to do with the file is for you to explain it. Here are some possible explanations:

To display this file on your website: If you want your coworkers to see this file on your website; To save it as a PDF or other popular format; To print it; To use it in other applications (such as email programs or word processors), or To open and view it (if you know what browser they use).

Now that we have our explanation(s), here are the steps:

Step 1 –  Go into your Webmail account (or any other application) Click on “File”. Click “New” under “New Document” Under “File Type”, select “Image/GIF”. Give the file a name. For example, say FileName = Photo1.jpg.

This is what we need for Step 2 below.

Choose “Save As Image”. Choose where you want this image saved. We will save ours at /wp-content/uploads/ . For example: /wp-content/uploads/Photo1_1.jpg . Next (Step 2) – If the user doesn’t recognize what the file does, ask them if they want you to download it from their computer instead of saving it locally (and if so why). Tell them that if they don’t want it locally, they will need to click on “Download Now”. On most browsers, click on your browser’s link in a new window or tab (this will save both files at once).

You might have trouble with some newer versions of browsers like Chrome and Safari where you have to right-click and then choose Download Location before clicking on Download Now (but this case shouldn’t be too much trouble – even having saved all files at once). On most Macs and PCs, right-click inside the main window and select Properties; click Show Advanced Options; then click Content Settings; then scroll down until you find Download Location, then click Change; change both options.