Knowledgebase

Making a New Standard Document

The “Standard Documents” plugin is used to assign permanent URL links for a document that might change from time to time. This allows you to change the file without changing the link. This also simplifies updating document files that are used in multiple places throughout your website.

For example, an annual report document uploaded to your site as a PDF will change every year. By using the Standard Documents plugin to update or upload a new PDF, the plugin automatically updates the link to that document throughout your entire site.

So, you can assign a URL like “yourdomain.com/currentannualreport” and simply switch out the document each year rather than creating a new URL every time you update/change the document or upload a new version. Using this feature also ensures that you don’t need to locate every use of the URL on your site to change it; the plugin handles everything.

Here’s how to use the plugin:

1. On the dashboard/admin menu, click on the Standard Documents icon.
2. Click on “Add New.”
3. Add the document title and then click on the “Select or upload file” button.
   
   1. PDF or image files only. If your document is something like a word processor file (e.g. MS Word, iOS Pages, Open Office, etc.) not in PDF format, you’ll need to export it as a PDF before you can upload it.
   2. Most word processors allow this in either the “Save As” menu item, or via the “Export as” menu feature.

 Editing the Publish Date

If you need to schedule the document to be automatically published at a future date, or if you’d like to align the publishing date with past information, you can do so. If you just want to publish the document immediately, you can skip this step. To change the publishing date:

1. Click on the “Edit” hyperlink next to the “Publish immediately” text.
2. To schedule the Standard Document to be published at a later date, simply change the date and it will automatically publish at that exact date and time.
3. To show the publishing date as something in the past, follow the same step as above, but use a past time and date. This will show that your Standard Document was published for that previous date. This is useful if you’d like to keep visually uniform appearances across company Standard Document postings (i.e. all posting dates are on the same date at the same time).

Publishing the Changes

Once your Standard Document upload is complete, you can click on the “Publish” button to make it live on your site. If you need to make any changes to it at any time afterward, you can do so. Simply make the changes and the “Publish” button will show you an “Update” button instead.