Linking to a file on your computer

To add content that you have saved on your computer to your website, create a link on a page on your website to a file saved on your computer or network.

For example, you might link to a Word document saved on your hard drive or an HTML page saved on your desktop. This essentially adds a new page to your website, with the content contained in the file.

When you publish the page with the link, Contribute copies the file into your website and then links to that copy--not to the actual file on your computer--to create the new page on your website.

Tip: If you want to replace an existing page on your website, with the contents of a file saved on you computer, see Replacing a file on your website.

You can use the Insert Link dialog box to insert a link to a file on your computer, or you can drag the file to your page (see Inserting a link to a Word or Excel document).

Note: If the file you want to link to is already saved on your web server--and not your computer--see Linking to a page on your website or on another website.

To create a link to a file on your computer using the Insert Link dialog box:

1. In your draft, do one of the following to indicate where you want the link to appear:
   • Place the insertion point in the draft.
   • Select text in the draft.
   • Select an image in the draft.
2. Do one of the following to open the Insert Link dialog box:
   • Click the Link button in the toolbar, and then select File on My Computer.
   • Select Insert > Link > File on My Computer.
   • Right-click (Windows) or Control-click (Macintosh), and then select Insert Link.

   The Insert Link dialog box appears.

   
   
   

3. Click the File on My Computer button (Windows) or File button (Macintosh) at the top of the dialog box, if it is not already selected.
4. Complete the dialog box.

   For more information, see Completing the File on My Computer section of the Insert Link dialog box.

5. Click OK.

   Contribute copies the file to create a new page on your website. A link to the new page appears in your draft.

Note: To edit content in the linked page after you publish, see Editing web page content in an external application. Changes you make to the original file do not appear on your website.

Related topics

• Linking to a draft or a recently published page on your website
• Linking to a new page
• Linking to a page on your website or on another website
• Linking to an e-mail address

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