List files on a page with a download button (free) Free

You have files — PDFs, forms, guides — sitting in your Media Library, and you want a page that lists them with a working download button. Not a pile of pasted links: a proper list visitors can search and sort. Here’s the five-minute version, using FileDeck’s free plugin — no code, no paid upgrade.

Why not just paste links?

A handful of links in a page works fine — until about file ten. Then the problems arrive: no search, no order, no way to see the file type or size before clicking, and every added file means editing the page again. Browsers also decide for themselves whether a linked PDF opens or downloads. A document library plugin fixes all four: files become a searchable, sortable list with real download buttons, and adding a file never means touching the page again.

Step 1: Install FileDeck

Plugins → Add New, search for FileDeck, install and activate. FileDeck creates a "Document Library" page for you automatically — you can use that page or add a library to any page of your own.

Step 2: Add your files

Two ways:

• Files already in your Media Library: go to Documents → Upload Documents, click Select from Media Library, and pick as many as you like. Each file becomes a document, titled from its filename (you can rename any of them later).
• New files: same screen — drag and drop them. Add many at once; a batch category and tags can be applied in the same step.

There’s no cap on documents in the free version.

Step 3: Put the list on a page

Edit any page and add the Document Library block (or paste the [filedeck] shortcode). You’ll see your files as a searchable table with a Download button per row — that’s the whole job done. The block’s sidebar lets you switch layouts (table, grid, or folders by category), choose columns like file size, type, and date, and pick a sort order.

To list only some files on a page, give those documents a category and scope the block to it (or use [filedeck category="forms"]).

Step 4: Make the button behave

By default the browser decides whether a click opens the file or saves it. If you want a file to always save to disk — or always open in a browser tab — edit the document and set Delivery to Force download or Open in browser. That’s per-document delivery control, also free.

What you get for free

Search-as-you-type, category and tag filters, sortable columns, download counting, all three layouts, and unlimited documents. When you later need to restrict who can see certain files — a members’ area, internal documents — that’s when access control (Pro) enters; nothing about your setup changes, you just add rules.