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How to Show File Downloads in a Nice Grid Display

You are here: Home / Web Development / How to Show File Downloads in a Nice Grid Display

Last updated: July 29, 2014 by Korin Iverson





In this tutorial I will show you how you can easily create a nice grid display and showcase your digital file downloads. This grid display will be responsive and you will also be able to track and monitor the download count of each file.

This will be very useful if you want to showcase some digital files to your visitors for free download.

Below is an example screenshot of how the grid display of your downloads will look like after you complete this tutorial.

digital-file-downloads-in-a-grid-screenshot



Steps to Create a Grid for Your Downloadable Files

Step 1) Install the Free Download Monitor Plugin

We are going to use the free download monitor plugin to configure some downloads and then display them in a grid. So install the simple download monitor plugin (if you don’t have it already).

Step 2) Configure a Few Downloads

Go to the “Downloads -> Add New” interface from your admin dashboard and configure your downloadable files.

When you create a download, you can also create categories and assign the download to one or more categories. Lets say, you have created a category called “download-category-1” and assigned your downloads to that category.

digital-file-download-category-configuration

Step 3) Create a WordPress Page to Showcase Your Downloads

Now that you have some downloadable files to offer to your visitors, you can create a page to showcase them. Go ahead and create a WordPress page then enter the following shortcode on this page:

[sdm_show_dl_from_category category_slug="download-category-1" fancy="2"]

In my example the slug of the category is “download-category-1”. If you used a different category name, adjust your category slug in the above shortcode.

Save and Publish this page then view it. You should see your downloads in a nice grid display like the following example:

digital-file-downloads-in-a-grid-screenshot

Step 4) Send Visitors to This Page

You have a nice showcase of downloads, so your next step is to let the visitors go to this page so they can download the files you are offering. You can do the following so that your visitors can easily find this page:

  • Go to the “Appearance -> Menu” interface and add this page to your site’s navigation menu
  • Add a link on your sidebar widget so that the users can click on it and go to this page

Leave a comment below if you face any issue setting up your file downloads in a grid.

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Web Development,  Wordpress digital downloads,  media file in wordpress,  sell digital downloads,  WordPress tutorial

Reader Interactions

Comments (15 responses)

  1. admin says:
    February 18, 2019 at 10:02 pm

    @Lana, You can customize the download button text in the shortcode. Use the following parameter in the shortcode:

    button_text=”Your Text”

  2. Lana says:
    February 18, 2019 at 5:33 pm

    I like this, but is there a way to have it honour the text I put in the Download Button field? Download Now! Is a bit…enthusastic…for my application.

  3. admin says:
    November 18, 2018 at 8:17 pm

    @Dian, Do you have a thumbnail image specified in the “File Thumbnail” field of the download items in question? Id you do, then the shortcode should just show the image (similar to the one shown in the screenshot of this tutorial).

  4. Dian H Farmer says:
    November 17, 2018 at 8:22 pm

    How do you get it to show an image? It only shows the title as a link.

  5. admin says:
    April 4, 2018 at 11:22 pm

    @Mare, Have a look at the “Sorting the download” section from the following page:
    https://www.tipsandtricks-hq.com/simple-wordpress-download-monitor-plugin

  6. Mare says:
    April 4, 2018 at 5:01 pm

    Hi there,
    Is there any way to reorder my downloads once I have added them?

    Thanks.

  7. Dave Nuttall says:
    September 20, 2017 at 6:58 am

    I was trying to achieve free downloads using eStore but logging “who got what” was kinda indirect, but when I fully explained what I wanted to do, this plugin was suggested and it took all of a few minutes to determine that I’d been using the wrong tool for this particular job. We’ll still use eStore for financially related transactions, but for free download, with or without eMember, this is simply SUPERB.

    Thanks to all.

  8. admin says:
    March 13, 2015 at 10:27 pm

    @David, use the new_window=”1″ parameter in the shortcode to open the download in a new window. Check the plugin documentation page for details:
    https://www.tipsandtricks-hq.com/simple-wordpress-download-monitor-plugin

  9. David says:
    March 13, 2015 at 5:11 pm

    Great Plug in, looks great and works well, I am using as a grid with following code[sdm_show_dl_from_category category_slug=”bultaco” fancy=”2″]
    what do I need to add to get downloads to open in a new window

  10. nhithai says:
    November 7, 2014 at 9:50 pm

    Very helpful, thanks for share!

  11. admin says:
    October 30, 2014 at 11:57 pm

    @Bilal, Try the following shortcode and see if that works for you. It will show all the download categories so your users can browse all download by categories and then go to an individual download item.

    [sdm_download_categories]

  12. Bilal says:
    October 30, 2014 at 1:04 pm

    Hello developers is there any way to show all the downloadable files from all categories
    Because i want to make an template to show all downloadable files on my website
    Please help.

  13. Danny says:
    August 27, 2014 at 1:29 pm

    Really nice plugin.. I am going to use it today. Thanks for sharing it..

  14. admin says:
    July 29, 2014 at 8:22 am

    @Ramona, Glad to hear that you like it 🙂

  15. Ramona says:
    July 29, 2014 at 7:38 am

    Wow! A very nice way to present Downloads. I’ll try it out. Thanks for this plugin.

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