Creating a link to a pdf file in an article in Joomla! 1.5 with Tiny MCE as the editor is straight forward, if a little fiddly.

If you are struggling, here’s how to do it…

First step is to upload the pdf. Do this by using Media Manager.

Choose Site – Media Manager and this will bring up all the folders to which you can upload files. The standard Joomla installation stores images in a file called “Stories“. Click on this and you will see all the images that have been uploaded to your site for use in articles.

The best place to store your pdfs is in a new folder inside this one.  In the top right of the pane there is a box for creating a new folder. Type in the name of the new folder (eg pdfs) and click the “Create Folder” button. Then click on the new folder to open it.

Once in this folder, upload the pdf in the usual way (Browse at the foot of the pane, and then Start Upload). You will see that your newly uploaded pdf is uses the following file structure: images/stories/pdfs/yourfile.pdf

This is important! You need to make a note of the Url in order to link to it in the article… I said it was fiddly!!

Once you have the pdf uploaded, navigate to the article in which you wish to add the link to the pdf. Place your cursor where you want the link text to be, type in the wording, highlight this and click the link icon on the WYSIWYG editor.

In the “Link Url” box type in the url you made a note of earlier. (Here it is images/stories/pdfs/50-50sale.pdf.)

Don’t forget to choose Target: Open Link in a new window if you want to keep your website open when a visitor opens the pdf.  Click insert and the link is made.

Remember to save the page and you are done!