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: turning existing media into documents in bulk is a Pro feature — see bulk-convert the Media Library. In the free plugin you can attach an existing media file to a document one at a time with Choose or upload file on the document editor.
• 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, gallery, or folders by category), and its Open the library builder button lets you 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 four 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.