How to attach a PDF to your Blogger blog post

Have you ever clicked on a link in a blog post and it opens to a PDF? Have you ever wondered how on earth the linking and magical retrieval of the file are done?

Well, I have. Because I have 3 online free tutorials which link to PDFs.

First of all, you need a internet space to store your file. Then you need to make it public and the linking is the easy part. The hard part is finding a internet space to store your file. Because you don't want to have to pay for the space. You want it FREE.

Back in the days, I used scribd. It was free. Then one day it started asking for money. So I moved my files to Acrobat workspace which was free as well.

One day I discovered google is very generous with internet space. It's called Google Drive. No, don't look out of your window. It's in the internet! It's in the internet! Okay, if you want, it's in your monitor. So when I created my Doggie Embroidery Floss Keeper, I put the PDF in my google drive. And it's not very hard to do either.

Anyhoo, this morning I received a email from Adobe that my free Acrobat workspace will eventually be taken back and I have some time to find an alternative space for my files. (I only have 2 PDFs residing on Acrobat workspace)

So I'm moving my files, right? And I thought why not write a tute while I'm at it. I know it works for Blogger as I use Blogger. So here goes.

Edit 22th March 2016 p.s. I have updated the following steps and photos as the interface has changed a lot since I wrote this post in 2014.

1. You must have a file to upload first.

2. If you're on Blogger, you already have a Gmail or Google account. Go to https://drive.google.com
Sign in if you haven't already.

3. To upload your file. See My Drive? Click and select "Upload files..."

4. Go to correct folder where your file resides and select file.

5. A upload wizard appears on right hand side. See image below. When upload is complete, click on pdf and it will open.

6. Within the pdf, you will see this symbol which looks like a person+. Click on it.

7. Click "Advanced" to get more options.

8. Click "Change" to modify access. Note that at this point, this pdf is "Private - Only you can access".

9. Select the access you desire. Mine is a free tute so I choose "Public on the web". If I want to restrict it to only people I share the link with, then I would choose "Anyone with the link". Click Save.

10. Clicking Save on previous screen will take you back to this screen below. Here is where you can grab the link (just click on the link and right click copy) you need to put in your blog post. Notice you can also share on gmail, Google+, facebook and twitter. Note the access has changed to "Public on the web - Anyone on the Internet can find and view." (because this was what I selected)

11. If you don't know how to link to the file in a blog post, here's a quick how-to. The screen below is your Blogger editor.

Is that easy?

Hope my instructions are clear.

Edited 8th September 2016
Zeedon Briggs asks for the pdf to be embedded in a blogger post. Is that possible? Yes.

First, let's assume you have already done all the access changes needed. Next open the pdf in your google drive. The codes you need is hidden so you need to do the following. First click on the 3 vertical dots. Next click on "open in new window. (see image below)

You will get the same pdf opened in a new window like below. In this newly opened pdf, click on the 3 vertical dots again and this time you will see the option "Embed item...". Click on that.

You should get the next screen. Copy the code and paste it in the HTML editor in blogger. If you put in COMPOSE editor it won't work.

You can modify the width and height to your liking.

The above is a screenshot of what it looks like on a blogger blog post. If your reader needs to print or download the pdf (assuming you have given the access), he needs to click on the pop-up icon and the pdf will open in a new tab where the print and download options will be available.

Hope this helps.