Changelogs

When you first launch your website, managing documents in WordPress feels effortless. You can easily find the files you need with minimal effort. But as your site grows, the story changes.

You start adding more content to your website. Now you have blog post images, product PDFs, team photos, marketing assets and so much more. And before you know it, your media library starts feeling crowded and chaotic.

The problem arises when you need to find specific documents from your media library, especially if you don’t remember the file name correctly. This lack of organization can not only lead to frustration but can also hamper your productivity.

Luckily, your media library doesn’t have to be that way anymore. With tools like Filr, you can organize your WordPress documents and create a system that’s easy to manage.

In this post, we’ll talk about how Filr can transform the way you organize your WordPress documents. But before we begin, let’s understand why it’s important to organize your documents in WordPress.

Why Organize Documents in WordPress

Managing your WordPress document efficiently is extremely important. This is especially true for websites with a large amount of content or multiple contributors.

Organizing your WordPress documents allows you to structure them under proper categories, tags, or folders. Contributors can use these categories, tags, or folders to easily locate their files without having to remember the file names.

This helps keep your site relevant and up-to-date while offering a seamless experience to users in the back end.

Now that you know the importance of organizing your WordPress documents let’s understand the default WordPress media library and how it works.

Understanding the Default WordPress Media Library

By default, WordPress stores all the uploaded media files in a centralized location called the WordPress Media Library.

Here you’ll find all the media files, such as images, videos, PDFs, audio, etc. that you’ve uploaded to your website. You can access the media library from your WordPress dashboard.

Here you can upload various file types like images, audio, video, documents, spreadsheets, etc. using the Upload button.

You can find the actual location of your Media Library Folder through your web hosting cPanel by navigating to File Manager > uploads.

Here, WordPress automatically creates different sub-folders based on years and months. It then organizes and adds media files to these folders based on the dates you upload them.

Now the problem is that the default WordPress media library comes with its limitations. It lacks several important features that help you manage your files effectively on your website. 

Let’s look at some of those limitations in the following section.

Drawbacks of the Default WordPress Media Library

The default WordPress Media Library allows you to create a basic document management system. The problem is that it comes with several drawbacks. Let’s look at some of these drawbacks here:

1. Cannot Classify Uploads – It only allows you to arrange your files based on their upload date. You cannot categorize or group them under custom folders. So you can’t classify the uploads based on criteria other than the upload date.
2. Cannot Prevent Unauthorized Access – It lacks security control that prevents unauthorized users from accessing the uploaded WordPress documents. 
3. Lacks Filtered Search Option – It lacks filter options to help you improve search results.
4. Does not Allow Document Expiry – Once you upload and publish a file, there’s no way to automatically expire it upon a set date. This feature can be helpful if you publish timed content on your website.

Fortunately, you can solve all the above problems by using the Filr WordPress document management plugin. Let’s learn a bit about it.

Filr Plugin – The Best WordPress Document Management Plugin

Filr is one of the most effective WordPress plugins that helps you create and manage your documents on your WordPress dashboard. This plugin is super user-friendly and even a newbie without experience can use it with ease.

The plugin comes in two different versions – 

1. Lite Version or the Free Version
2. Pro Version or the Paid Version 

Although the lite version is an equally great option to manage and organize your WordPress documents, the pro version comes with even more options.

The pro version of the plugin, lets you control the file expiration by date. You can even restrict access to your files by email or user role to keep your files secure. And not just that, it also allows your users to add documents from the front end of your website.

With many other amazing features, this plugin is a must-have for anyone who wants to manage and organize their documents in the WordPress media library. Now let’s check out how to do that with Filr.

How to Organize WordPress Documents with Filr

In this section, we’ll walk you through a step-by-step tutorial on how to organize your WordPress documents using Filr. For the sake of this tutorial, we’ll be using the Lite version of the plugin. However, we’ll also explain how to activate the pro version. 

Towards the end of the post, we’ll tell you about the additional features you can have when using the pro version of the plugin. 

So let’s get started. We’ll begin by installing and activating the plugin in WordPress.

Step 1: Install and Activate Filr WordPress plugin

To install the Filr plugin, navigate to Plugins > Add New Plugin

Then using the search box, find the Filr plugin and click Install Now > Activate.

Once the plugin is activated on your website, you can start creating your Document Library. If you want to use the pro version, you have to follow a different method. 

To use the pro version of Filr you’ll first need to purchase Filr.

Once you do that, you’ll receive an email notification with a download link and a license key. Click on the download link to download the Filr plugin premium version. Then you can take the following steps.

On your WordPress dashboard, go to Plugins > Add New > Upload Plugin. Now click on the Choose File button to upload the file that you’ve just downloaded. 

Once done, click on Install Plugin > Activate Plugin to start the installation process. 

Your plugin will now be active on your website. To start using the pro version of the plugin, you’ll need to add the license key. To do so, go to Plugins > Filr > Activate License on your WordPress dashboard.

You’ll now see a popup box where you can add the License key. Copy the key from your email and paste it here. Then click  Agree and Activate License.

On your WordPress dashboard, you’ll see a message saying you’ll receive an email on your registered email address where you need to confirm the opt-in.

So go to your email address and click on Confirm Your Email to activate the pro version of the plugin.

Step 2: Create a Document Library

In the next step, we’ll create the document library. For that, go to Filr > Libraries. On the right side of your screen, you’ll see various fields under the Add New Library option. Here you can fill in the details as labeled. 

You just have to fill in your library name, and add the slug (which is the same as your library name but in lower caps and with a hyphen in between the names).

Once done, click on the Add New Library button at the bottom. Now on the right side, you’ll see the newly created library along with the slug and the shortcode next to it. 

We’ll use this shortcode later to display your document library on your website. Now you’ll have to add your files to this library.

Step 3: Add Files to Your Document Library

To start adding new files to your library, go to Filr > Add New on your WordPress dashboard. Here you can add a title and start adding your files using the Browse Files button.

Next under the Library option, on your right, select Sample Library. This will connect the library and file you’ve created and keep them organized under one section. Once you’re done click on the Publish button to set it live. 

Step 4: Display the Library on Your WordPress Website

Now that we’ve created your library and added some files to it, it’s time to showcase it on your WordPress website. To do that, go to Pages > Add New and create a new page on your WordPress dashboard.

Next, give this page a name and add all the additional information or content you want on the page. Once you’ve done that, again on your WordPress dashboard, go to Filr > Libraries. From here, copy the shortcode of the library that you created in step 2.

Paste this shortcode in the new page that you’ve just created. Next, hit the Publish button. You can also add any other content that you want to the page. We are adding some demo content here for your understanding.

Your document library will now start reflecting on the front end of this page.

Customizing the Appearance of Your Document Library

The best thing about Filr is that it lets you customize the look and feel of your Document Library. Although the default option looks good too, sometimes you might want to match it to your brand colors. In that case, customizing it can be super easy.

To do that, go to Filr > Settings > Libraries.

Here you can easily change the color and style of your library. It lets you change the background color of your table headings and even the entire table. You can also add hover effects, change the button color, and button font color, add a table radius, and more. 

By scrolling further, you’ll see options to customize the rows and columns as well. Here you can add the number of rows and columns you want. You can also choose the sorting mode in this section.

If you scroll further down, you’ll see options to deactivate the name column, file size column, type column, etc.

By scrolling further below, you can also add alternative text for folders that contain no files. You can also rename your download button, activate file preview, enable the opening of the external file in a new tab, and deactivate the search option and pagination options.

Just scroll through these options and turn them on or off based on your requirements. Once done, hit the Save button to save the changes.

Adding Overall Security to Your Documents with Filr

In this section, let’s learn how to add document security with Filr. By adding security measures to your documents, you can control who can access your files. 
To start adding security measures to your files, go to Filr > Settings > Status

Here under Protection, you’ll have three options. Based on your needs, you can choose the kind of protection you want. 

1. No Protection – If you don’t need any protection select this option.
2. Index.php – Select this option if you want to restrict access to an entire file directory. You can also select this option if you’re using server types like Nginx or Windows.
3. .htaccess – You can select this option if you use an Apache server. This will forbid unauthorized access to any files within a directory.

Once you’ve made all the changes, click the Save Changes button to save the changes. This was about the lite version of the plugin. Let’s now look at some of the pro features.

Filr Pro Features

Using the Pro version of Filr lets you use several additional features. Let’s look at some of them in this section. 

1. More Options Upon Adding Files

If you’re using the pro version of the plugin, when you add your files, you’ll see more options on the right of your screen under various sections. Lets look at the File Management section for example.

Here, if you’re uploading more than one file, you can organize them in a folder by creating a folder. For that, click on the toggle bar labeled Use as folder instead of a file. 

Now you can scroll down to find the Advanced Option. Under this section, you can do the following –

• set an expiration date for the file
• set the number of downloads after which you want the file to expiry
• add a password for the ZIP
• encrypt the filename 

Filr Pro also lets you determine who can access this file by email or WordPress user role. For that, you can scroll down the page to find the User Options.

2. More Customization Options

Apart from the above customization options, here are a few more options that come with the pro plugin. 

First, you can add your own colors for folders when it is opened by the user. You can also change this color when the folder is closed. 

You also have the option to deactivate the following columns.

 In the pro version, under Additional Settings, you can also enable showing the expired downloads in the library, and activate the file preview as well.

If you’re using the pro version, you can also add a date to deactivate a specific column and deactivate the expired column and the version column.

3. Frontend Uploader Option

With the pro version, you can also allow your users to upload files from the front end of your website. 

You can also send an email to your users once the file is submitted along with several other amazing features. Here’s a screenshot of them.

4. Security Features

If you have the pro version of the plugin, you can protect your document further by securing your download links. For that, turn on the Secure Download Links option. You’ll also find options to encrypt file IDs in URLs. All you have to do is turn on the Encrypt File-ID in URL option. You can also add an error message for users with unallowed access.

Now that you know the differences between the lite and the pro version, you can select which one to opt for based on your requirements.

Conclusion

Managing a large volume of WordPress documents can be a daunting task. But with Filr, it doesn’t have to be. This powerful WordPress plugin is designed to help you manage any amount of digital files easily and efficiently.

Whether you’re dealing with a few important files or a vast collection of documents and other digital assets, Filr is up to the task. It simplifies the process of organizing your site’s files, making search and retrieval straightforward and quick.

But Filr doesn’t stop there. It also enhances collaboration, making working together easier for you and your colleagues. Plus, it ensures secure file access, giving you peace of mind.

So don’t let document management be a headache. Start using Filr today and experience a more secure, flexible, and user-friendly way to organize your WordPress documents.

As a business owner, organizing your media assets becomes challenging as your agency starts to grow. One way to keep everything organized would be to create a media assets library.

This way, your team members will have all of the media assets available to them in a centralized hub. You can also secure it so it’s accessible only to authorized staff members.  

In this guide, we’ll take a look at what a WordPress media assets library is and how you can create one for your agency in a few simple steps.

What is a media asset library?

Before we jump into creating a media assets library for your business, let’s take a step back to see what a media assets library actually is and how it helps businesses stay organized.

A media asset library is a hub for all of your brand’s media assets. These can be images, videos, ads, logos, and banners.

Most agencies don’t have a centralized hub for their media assets which can potentially lead to mismanagement. It makes it difficult for marketers to quickly find a specific image or video they need to post.

By creating a media assets library, you can stay organized. This way, finding media assets of different sizes and formats that you might need for specific placements – like for Instagram Stories or Facebook banners – becomes easy and hassle-free.

You can also download multiple media assets in one go from your media assets library which is particularly useful if you need access to a set of media assets. For example, if you need your brand logo and the latest promotional ads for an email marketing campaign.

Having a WordPress media assets library is important for agencies looking for a way to better manage their media assets for different channels such as social media, digital marketing, and PR.

How to create a media assets library in WordPress using Filr

Filr is a WordPress plugin that lets you build a media assets library for your agency.

You can use it to create a clean table layout listing all of your media assets (along with download links) for users. The plugin lets you upload individual files or multiple files to your media library at a time.

Here’s what you need to create a media assets library in WordPress:

• A WordPress website
• Some media assets (like images, videos, or media kits)
• The Filr plugin

Step #1: Install the Filr plugin

The Filr plugin for WordPress enables users to upload media assets to their website and display them on the front-end in an organized way. In addition to this, it also provides additional features like file encryption and file expiration which help prevent unwanted access to your organization’s media assets.

The first thing you need to do is get the Filr plugin and install it on your WordPress website. Once it’s installed, click the Activate button to get started.

Step #2: Create groups for your media assets

By creating groups for your media assets, it makes it for users to find what they’re looking for. As an agency, you might consider creating groups named PR, Social Media, and Digital Marketing to sort and keep track of all of your media assets.

So, for example, if you need to replace an ad you posted on your Instagram business page, you will find the relevant material under the Social Media group you created. 

To create a new group, go to Files > Libraries from the WordPress admin panel. Enter a name and description for your group and click the Add New Library button to continue. It will appear on the right-hand side of your screen along with a shortcode that lets you display all of the files sorted under that library on the front-end. For now, copy the shortcode to your clipboard.

Step #3: Add your media assets

The next step is to start adding media assets to your WordPress site.

To do this, go to Files from the WordPress dashboard and click the Add New button. Give your file (or files) a name and upload the media assets using the File Upload meta box.

Once that’s done, organize your media asset files to the appropriate group using the Lists meta box on the right-hand side of the page.

Finally, click the Publish button to proceed.

Step #4: Publish the media assets library

Now that we’ve uploaded all of the media assets, we can publish the media assets library on the front-end.

Go to Pages > Add New from the WordPress dashboard to create a new page. Next, we’ll use the shortcode we copied to our clipboard. Add a new Shortcode block to the text editor and paste the shortcode in it. Click the Publish button to publish your media assets library on your WordPress site’s front-end.

It will look something like this:

Users will be able to see and download all the files by clicking on the file name under the Download column in the table.

Filr lets you change the style and colors of your WordPress media assets library. Head over to Files > Settings and click on the Shortcode tab to customize the media assets library.

You can also publish multiple libraries on a single page. All you have to do is paste the shortcodes of the groups you want to publish in the text editor. It might look something like this:

After successfully publishing your media assets library on your WordPress website using the Filr plugin, you need to secure your media assets so that only your team members have access. 

The easiest way to do that is by using Passster – a WordPress content protection plugin. Passster enables you to restrict access to your content in a variety of different ways including password protection, CAPTCHAs and reCAPTCHAs, role-based access control, and unlocking via a link. Check out the 6 Different Ways to Restrict Content in WordPress for step-by-step instructions. 

So, when an authorized user accesses the media assets library, they’ll be able to find what they’re looking for and download it to their machine.

Wrapping up

By creating a media assets library for your agency, you can make it easy for marketers and team members to quickly find what they’re looking for. You can organize them based on the types of media assets you create or your marketing strategies.

The easiest way to do this in WordPress is by using the Filr plugin.

Using Filr, you can create a WordPress media assets library in four simple steps that users can access and download media assets from – individually or in sets.

If your organization has a public-facing WordPress website, it’s important to keep your website’s content organized. This is especially true if you’ve stored hundreds of publications like case studies, research papers, and other documentation that visitors, staff, and team members need quick access to.

With the right online publications plugin, you can easily improve the file organization workflow on your WordPress site and make it easier for your site users to find, view, and download publications.

In this post, we’ll take you step-by-step through the process of creating a publications library for your WordPress site.

What is a publications library?

A publications library is basically a list of publications linking to full content that is downloadable. It enables companies and organizations to easily store their publications in an organized, digital form.

Inexperienced users often make the mistake of setting up their WordPress publications library as static content. This may work well if you have, let’s say, only a handful of links to PDF downloads and you want users to be able to download directly from your site’s pages or posts.

But if you want to store hundreds of publications in your WordPress library, you’ll need a simple and efficient way to upload, manage, and share these publications with your site’s users. Otherwise, it will be difficult for you to keep everything organized on the back-end not to mention the trouble your site visitors will face trying to find the publications they’re looking for.

The solution is to create a publications library where publications are stored and organized in an easy way. It will also allow your site users to download multiple documents in one go.

If your organization has a public-facing website, a publications library lets you disseminate resources such as company policies, documentation, research papers, and case studies to staff and site visitors. Similarly, you can make certain publications available only to specific site members and provide users with different levels of access.

Now that you know the benefits of setting up a publications library, let’s create one for your WordPress website.

How to create a publications library in WordPress using Filr

In this section, we’ll show you how to build a publications library in WordPress using the Filr plugin.

You can use it to upload one or more files to your publications library. The Filr plugin lets you create a clean, front-end table layout listing all of your publications along with download links. This way, your site’s users can download them all at once in a single click or one at a time.

For this tutorial, we’ll assume you already have a WordPress site and some publications that you’d like to add to it.

Step #1: Install the Filr plugin

Filr is a WordPress plugin that helps organizations easily add, protect, and make files and documents available to users.

The plugin lets you upload and display documents on your site’s pages in a secure way. Additionally, the Filr plugin comes with a number of file protection features like file encryption and file expiration based on the number of downloads or by specific dates. This way, you can make sure that unauthorized can’t access your publications.

Get the Filr plugin and install it on your WordPress site, if you haven’t done so already. Once that’s done, click the Activate button to proceed.

Step #2: Create publications libraries

We’ll start by creating a new library which will be used to organize the publications. This will help you sort your publications while keeping everything organized on the back-end.

For example, if you want to modify a set of files or restrict users from downloading them, can quickly find them if you know which library they are sorted under. This will also enable you to easily keep track of hundreds of publications stored in your WordPress library.

To create a new library, go to the WordPress dashboard and navigate to Files > Libraries. Enter a title for your library and give it a brief description. When you’re done, click the Add New Library button to proceed.

A new library will automatically appear on the right-hand side of the screen along with a shortcode.

We’ll use this shortcode in Step #4 to display the publications library on the front-end of your WordPress website. For now, copy the shortcode to your clipboard.

Step #3: Add your publications

Filr is a handy WordPress plugin that offers a simple way to create a publications library in WordPress. It helps you:

• Upload one or more publications straight to a secure folder on your WordPress website.
• Group publications based on libraries enabling you to easily manage and track publications on the back-end.
• Set publications to expire on a specific date or after a set number of downloads.
• Prevent users from directly accessing publications using filename encryption.

Now that you’ve already created a list to sort your publications into, the next step is to upload the publications to your WordPress site.

Navigate to Files > Add New and enter a title for your files. In the File Upload meta box, upload the publications you want to share with your site’s users. You can select the list you created in Step #2 from the Lists meta box on the right-hand side of the screen to organize them.

In addition to this, you’ll be able to expire publications either by date or the number of downloads. Filr also lets you activate filename encryption by toggling the Encrypt Filename option on.

Click the Publish button to continue.

Step #4: Display the publications library on the front-end

Finally, it’s time to display the publications library on the front-end of your site. For this, create a new page by going to Pages > Add New. Paste the shortcode you copied to your clipboard in Step #2 to a new shortcode block in the text editor as shown below:

Once you’re done, click on the Publish… button. A publications library will automatically be generated on the front end of your WordPress website. It should look something like the screenshot below:

Users will be able to download all the files at once by clicking the button with the file name.

The Filr plugin also allows you to customize the appearance of your publications library. You can change various settings including colors and styles, as well as the rows that appear on the front-end by going to Files > Settings from your WordPress dashboard and clicking on the Shortcode tab.

Bonus: secure your publications library

Filr offers a number of ways to secure a WordPress publications library. This is especially useful for organizations looking to restrict unauthorized users from accessing and viewing their publications.

Out of the box, Filr comes with three different file protection options:

• No protection. Filr’s default protection setting allows organizations to share publications on their website without any restrictions.
• Index.php. This protection setting lets you create an index.php file on the root of your uploads directory. Enabling this option will hide all the content in your download directory.
• .htaccess. This protection setting restricts users from accessing your uploads directory and redirects them to a 403 code (Forbidden Access) page.

You can configure these file protection settings by navigating to Files > Settings from the WordPress dashboard and clicking on the Status tab.

Check the radio button next to the protection setting you wish to apply to your publications. You can view the protection status by clicking the Check directory protection link. When you’re done, click the Save Changes button to continue.

Passster is a WordPress content protection plugin that lets you secure your WordPress publications library in a variety of different ways. You’ll be able to restrict content access using password protection, unlock via link, CAPTCHAs and reCAPTCHAs, and role-based access control.

For instructions on how to do this, be sure to check out our article on 6 ways to restrict content in WordPress.

Create your WordPress publications library

Managing and securing publications on your WordPress website is incredibly easy with the Filr plugin. You can use this plugin to create a secure publications library for your WordPress site and allow your site users to access and download these publications.

Whether you’re an online instructor or a WooCommerce shop owner, you need to effectively communicate your ideas to your audience.

For instance, you might want to share course material with your students or publish a review of products on your website. By default, WordPress lets you upload PDFs and documents to the Media Library but it doesn’t give you a reader-friendly interface to present them to visitors in an effective way.

You need a file viewer plugin for your website if it features a lot of text-based content – whether it’s in the form of blog posts, books, magazines, or booklets.

In this article, we’ll run the rule over some of the best WordPress file viewer plugins that will enable you to upload and embed your documents in WordPress and share them with other people.

#1: Filr

Filr is a handy WordPress file viewer plugin that helps you quickly add, protect, and share files and documents through your WordPress website. This plugin lets you display documents on your site pages using shortcodes. It has a number of file security features including file encryption and file expiration on set dates or number of downloads.

Key features: 

• Using Filr, you can allow users to download files and documents in two ways: offer single file downloads so users can choose which file to download one at a time or zip multiple files into a single archive file and let them download all of the files at once.
• Filr enables you to group documents into lists and easily manage them on the back-end.
• You can add any number of files directly from your website’s and create a front-end document library to organize them.
• You’ll be able to restrict site users from viewing documents on your site and only allow authorized people to access them.

#2: Embed Any Document

The Embed Any Document WordPress plugin helps you add and embed your PDF, Excel, PowerPoint, and Word documents directly on your WordPress site. You don’t need to install a browser plugin like Acrobat Reader or Flash.

Key features: 

• It offers a clean and intuitive user interface.
• Embed Any Document supports all popular document file types including Microsoft Word, Microsoft PowerPoint, Microsoft Excel, Adobe Portable Document Format, text files, and TIFF Images.
• You can choose between Microsoft Office Online and Google Docs Viewer to display the documents on your website. And, if one service is down, you can easily switch to the other one. 
• Embed Any Document comes mobile-ready out of the box and offers cross-browser compatibility.

Price: Free

#3: PDF Embedder

PDF Embedder is a popular WordPress file viewer plugin that lets you upload PDFs and embed them directly into your website pages. The plugin is easy-to-use and offers a lot of flexibility if you want to change your document’s appearance.

Key features: 

• PDF Embedder automatically resizes PDFs to their natural shape and size. Alternatively, you can manually specify the document’s size.
• The plugin only uses JavaScript to embed PDFs giving you more freedom over the appearance of your documents.
• Its drag and drop interface lets you quickly add files to your website with a single click.
• Its premium features include a download button in the toolbar, continuous scroll between pages, full screen mode, and tracking the number of downloads and views.

Price: 

• Free version available
• PDF Embedder Premium costs $20 for single site license

#4: PDF.js Viewer

PDF.js Viewer is a WordPress file viewer plugin that helps you display your documents in a visually-appealing way. Your PDFs will be embedded in a stylish grey theme frame, and viewers can navigate documents using an intuitive document outline.

Key features: 

• It uses Gutenberg blocks and shortcodes to embed documents in pages and posts.
• Its lazy load feature helps keep your site speeds up by only displaying portions of a document that has been navigated to. 
• PDF.js works seamlessly with mobile devices and supports all languages.
• You’ll be able to secure your documents using passwords.
• Other useful features include customizable buttons, advanced search functionality, and advanced zoom settings.

Price: Free

#5: 3D FlipBook

3D FlipBook is a powerful WordPress document viewer that enables you to display your PDFs, images, and HTML pages as a flipbook. This plugin allows you to present your content in a reader-friendly way.

Key features: 

• It’s an easy to use and responsive PDF viewer.
• This plugin is ideal for websites that feature books, magazines, brochures, cards, and booklets.
• Its flipbook reading functionality will also work seamlessly on mobile devices.
• 3D FlipBook simulates the real-world experience of reading books. Plus, you can customize the way flipbook pages deform as viewers turn them over.
• Other useful features include smart pan mode, PDF bookmarks, PDF search, and auto resolution.

Price: Free

#6: Flowpaper

This WordPress PDF viewer plugin offers a user-friendly document reading interface featuring a flipbook. Its backend controls are geared towards advanced developers who want a great looking PDF viewer. Flowpaper comes with a number of code customizations and storage limits that are suitable for advanced users.

Key features: 

• You can display your documents in one of three ways. The first method involves hosting the files on another location and pasting in the link. The other two methods involve uploading your PDFs to WordPress or the Flowpaper cloud.
• Flowpaper supports the majority of browsers and devices.
• Viewers can choose between light and dark themes.
• The Flowpaper cloud only lets you upload PDFs that are 15 MB or smaller.

Price: Free

#7: PDF & Print

If you’re looking for a multi-purpose WordPress PDF plugin, PDF & Print is just what you need. It can quickly convert a blog post to the PDF format. This way, users can print your site pages by converting them to PDF directly from your WordPress site.

Key features: 

• PDF & Print is an easy-to-use plugin that doesn’t require any coding skills.
• You’ll be able to display PDF & Print buttons for specific user roles.
• You can automatically add PDF & Print buttons to posts, pages, search results, custom post types, and archives.
• It lets you set and change PDF button actions including Download PDF and Open PDF in a new window.

Price: Free

#8: WooCommerce Product Files Tab

WooCommerce Product Files Tab is a popular document viewer plugin that lets you display additional information along with your PDF files. This way, you’ll be able to present more information to potential customers and increase downloads.

Key features: 

• This plugin comes with easy-to-make back-end configurations.
• It supports both the WPML and Polylang plugins.
• WooCommerce Product Files Tab supports all popular file types including PDF, DOC, XLS, PNG, TXT, and ZIP.

Price: Free

#9: Inline Google Spreadsheet Viewer

Inline Google Spreadsheet Viewer is a useful WordPress file viewer plugin that helps you convert data saved in Google Spreadsheets, CSV files, and MySQL databases into a visual-friendly layout. This way, you’ll be able to sort and search through stored data or create great-looking interactive charts and graphs. In addition to this, you’ll be able to embed live previews of document file formats such as PDF, DOC, and XLS using Google Docs Viewer.

Key features: 

• It is easy to use and allows you to quickly load large amounts of data from Google Spreadsheets.
• You’ll be able to customize the plugin to suit your particular needs.
• You can easily embed Google Spreadsheets, app scripts, and CSV files in WordPress pages or posts as HTML tables or interactive charts and graphs.

Price: $10

#10: Elfsight File Embed

Elfsight File Embed is a powerful WordPress file viewer plugin that helps you quickly integrate over 20 file formats on your website. Site users will be able to download the documents, view the documents directly from your website, or open them in a new tab.

Key features: 

• You can name individual files, upload your own pictures or icons, and select file layout variants to view documents on the website.
• It supports all popular document file formats including PDF, DOCX, JPG, and JPEG.
• You can add files to your site in one of three ways i.e. by directly uploading files, by adding their URLs, or by selecting them from recently uploaded files.

Price: Free

Conclusion

We looked at various PDF and document file viewer plugins for WordPress and covered their standout features. By using the right file viewer plugin for your website, you can easily make documents and PDF files available to your site’s visitors in an easy-to-read and printer-friendly way.

Check out our roundup of the 7 Best Document and File Management Plugins for WordPress in 2020 for even more plugins.

Digital asset management (DAM) is a system that stores, catalogs, and distributes digital files such as images, video files, and audio files. A successful digital asset management system gives you the flexibility and control to efficiently create, upload, access, edit, and share digital assets with others through a centralized, secure location.

Digital asset management plugins for WordPress work similar to file storage services like Google Drive and Dropbox, however, they offer much more than file uploading and sharing features. WordPress also offers some basic digital asset management features that let you upload digital files from within WordPress which, for most business users, is just not enough. 

Fortunately, you can easily upgrade your WordPress digital asset management system using a WordPress plugin that delivers all the digital asset management features you need to efficiently manage your files.

In this post, we’ll run the rule over some of the best WordPress digital asset management plugins that enable you to store, share, and organize your digital assets.

What is digital asset management?

By default, WordPress gives you access to a basic digital asset management system in the WordPress Media Library that you can use to upload files and documents. However, it doesn’t offer any cataloging, accessing, or sharing features that you’d expect to get with a traditional digital asset management system. 

For instance, when you upload a digital asset to the WordPress Media Library, you can’t assign taxonomies or label files to ensure easy access in the future. These are all essential DAM features.

As a business owner, you need an excellent WordPress digital asset management plugin that lets you catalog your media files and share them with others in a secure way.

Now that you know why you need a robust DAM system for your WordPress website, let’s go over our handpicked selection of WordPress digital asset management plugins to help you find the one that best fits your needs.

5 Best Digital Asset Management Plugins for WordPress

Here, we’ll run the rule over some of the best digital asset management plugins that can help you improve how you store and manage digital files on your WordPress site and share them with other people. 

#1: Filr

Filr is a robust WordPress digital asset management plugin that helps you store, protect, and share files through your website. It comes with powerful asset management and security features out of the box like filename encryption and file expiration based on specified dates or the number of downloads.

Once you’ve uploaded your files, you can display them using simple shortcodes. In addition to this, you’ll be able to block direct access to your files by configuring your custom file directory or adding global protection through the index.php or .htaccess file.

Key features:

• Filr enables you to prevent unauthorized users from accessing your digital assets and secure your digital files so only the right people can view them.
• You’ll be able to create a document library and upload any number of files directly to your WordPress site’s front-end.
• You can group your digital assets including videos, audios, and PDFs based on lists and easily manage and track them on the back-end.
• Filr lets you distribute files through your WordPress site in two ways: offer individual downloads that allow users to download one file at a time or zip multiple files into a single archive file so users can download all of them in one go.
• You can customize the appearance of your file libraries by changing colors, borders, font sizes, and box-shadows.
• Restrict file access by the user (e-mail) or user role
• manage your files in folders in a modern and UX-friendly way
• provide a live search and pagination solution to display hundreds of files within a library
• password-protect ZIP files for maximum security, encrypt file names, and completely shut down external access to files
• Prevents uploaded files to be visible as an attachment by uploading only to secured folders and blocks Google and other search engines from indexing your files accidentally

#2: File Manager

File Manager is a user-friendly WordPress digital asset management plugin that helps you organize and protect your WordPress files. It lets you add, modify, delete, access, and distribute files and folders directly from your WordPress site’s back-end.

In addition to this, File Manager is a great alternative to FTP and cPanel for transferring your data assets quickly and in a secure way. It also offers a number of integrations with other applications including Google Drive, Github, and Dropbox.

Key features:

• You can easily upload, copy, move, rename, create, edit, and delete files and folders on a remote server.
• File Manager lets you upload files of all sizes as well as create, archive, and extract files in rar, zip, tar, and gzip formats.
• You’ll be able to quickly view all file details and properties by right-clicking on a file and selecting ‘Get Info’.
• Its drag and drop upload interface helps you add one or more files directly from your desktop or Windows Explorer.
• The uploaded files including images, pdfs, and zip files can be viewed in your folders and can also be accessed from the native WordPress Media Library.

#3: Brandfolder

Brandfolder is a digital asset management tool that enables designers and creatives to manage and distribute their files and documents. Its intuitive, cloud-based, single location allows you to store all your digital files and share them with your team members and clients. Brandfolder supports integration with a number of applications including WooCommerce, Shopify, Gmail, HubSpot, Salesforce, Marketo, Canva, and Slack.

Additionally, Brandfolder uses AI to help you monitor how your files are performing by generating insights about file views, downloads, and shares. It also comes with powerful search functions so you’ll be able to quickly locate required assets. 

Key features:

• You can easily edit your Brandfolders directly from the WordPress dashboard.
• Brandfolder’s privacy controls and user-level permissions let you secure your digital assets to ensure only authorized people have access to them.
• Its Media Library integration (Brandfolder Browsers) lets you quickly import files from your Brandfolders to be used in pages or posts.
• You’ll be able to embed your Brandfolder on widgets, menu bars, posts, and pages using its ‘Popup Embed’ feature.
• Using Brandfolder, you can track who’s using your digital files, where they’re being used, and what your best-performing digital assets are.

#4: Enhanced Media Library

This WordPress media management plugin is an excellent tool if you want to easily search and categorize your digital files. You’ll be able to quickly search through your library using categories and tags, and add filter-based categories to posts and pages using shortcodes.

Its intuitive and simple-to-use interface allows you to quickly organize your digital assets, add disallowed file types, and automatically update galleries every time new assets are uploaded to the library.

Key features:

• Enhanced Media Library lets you categorize your media files by creating your own taxonomies such as folders, topics, authors, countries, and projects.
• You can easily manage the plugin options like configuring filters to control which images are displayed.
• You’ll be able to reorder media files, edit their titles, filenames, and captions, and bulk select items to edit your Media Library faster.
• It enables you to create dynamic galleries and playlists based on a tag, category, or date. This way, whenever a media file is added or removed from the group, the gallery will be updated dynamically.
• This plugin lets you control which files can be uploaded to the Media Library. You can also filter media files using file type filters.

#5: Canto

Canto is a popular DAM solution that helps organizations centralize, manage, share, and secure their digital media assets. It is a simple yet powerful media management system that lets you quickly search through your image library, assign metadata to batch uploaded photos, and limit permissions on albums and folders. You can also create customizable sorting options to search through your Media Library alphabetically, by date, or file type.

It offers integration with applications such as WordPress, Google Drive, MailChimp, Slack, and Marketo.

Key features:

• It comes with a powerful facial recognition feature which means you no longer have to tag the same people over and over.
• Canto’s ‘Smart Albums’ feature helps you automatically sort your media files by keywords, tags, and file types. 
• Canto lets you create three different user roles namely Administrators, Contributors, and Consumers – all with varying functions. This way, you can set permissions for roles as to who can upload, manage, view, edit, and/or remove content on your website.
• Canto lets you securely share your media assets with team members and clients. You can also set expiration dates on emails and share links to protect sensitive files while making them available for sharing and collaboration.

Conclusion

On its own, WordPress lacks native digital asset management features. However, by using the right digital asset management plugins, you’ll be able to access, catalog, and share your digital assets in a secure way.

Also, be sure to check out our roundup of the 7 Best Document and File Management Plugins for WordPress in 2020.