Make every link to a file say what it is and how big it is, such as Capabilities brochure (PDF, 12 MB). Better still, put the content people read on screen on an ordinary page.

A link that turns into a download

An engineering firm's menu has a link called Our Capabilities. Click it, and instead of a page, a 12 MB PDF starts to download: the printed brochure, forty pages of project photos.

On the office computer where it was tested, it opened in a moment. For many visitors it means a long wait, a file in a downloads folder, or another program taking over the screen.

Nothing in the link warned them. It looked like every other link in the menu and behaved like none of them.

Who gets caught out

The people caught out are often the ones the firm most wants to reach:

None of them did anything wrong. They followed a link that looked as if it led to a page.

What happens after the click

Browsers treat a PDF in different ways. Some show it inside the tab, some hand it to a separate reader program, and some save it and leave the visitor to find it.

When a separate program opens, the browser's back button is no longer on screen. Getting back to the site means closing one program and finding the other.

A screen reader announces the switch but not the reason, then reads a document whose headings and reading order may be missing.

Saying what the link opens

The fix for the link itself is small: put the file type and size in the visible link text. Capabilities brochure (PDF, 12 MB) tells visitors exactly what they are choosing.

Keep it in the text rather than a tooltip, which phones never show. The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines ask that a link's purpose be clear from its text or its context.

Do the same for spreadsheets, Word documents and zip files, wherever they are linked, including links inside blog posts and news items.

Size matters on a phone

A 12 MB brochure is mostly photographs saved for a printer, at a resolution no screen needs, and a visitor on a phone pays for every one of those megabytes.

Saved again for reading on screen, the same document is usually far smaller, and it opens before a visitor on a weak signal gives up.

If a full version is needed for print, offer both, each labelled with its size, and let visitors choose.

A worked example

A tool and die shop in an industrial park builds stamping dies, moulds and fixtures for manufacturers, with a dozen machinists on two shifts. Two of the five links in its menu were PDFs.

Equipment opened a scanned list of machines, and Capabilities opened the printed brochure at 15 MB, saved straight from the designer's print file. Neither link said it was a file.

A purchasing agent checking for a particular machine on his phone, between meetings, gave up waiting for the brochure. He mentioned it months later, after placing the order elsewhere.

The equipment list is now an ordinary page: each machine with its working size and tolerances, in text that a phone, a screen reader and a search engine can all read.

Capabilities now opens a page describing the work, with the brochure offered at the bottom, saved again for screens and labelled Capabilities brochure (PDF, 2 MB). Nobody downloads it by surprise.

When the content belongs on a page

Anything people read on screen to make a decision belongs on a page: services, capabilities, equipment, prices and hours.

A page fits the screen, can be searched and updated, and keeps the site's menu and contact details around it.

Files suit the things people print, fill in or keep: forms, certificates, drawings and specification sheets. A sentence on the page should still say what each file holds.

When a file stays a file

A PDF that stays should be built from text, not scanned images. A scanned list is a picture to a screen reader, which finds nothing to read.

Most programs that create PDFs can save a tagged file, which records headings, lists and reading order. Choose that option when saving.

Set a title in the file's properties, since many PDF readers show it in place of the file name, and give the file a name that describes it.

Links that open a new window

A link that opens a new window or tab causes a smaller version of the same surprise. The back button stops working, because the new window has no history.

If a link must open a new window, say so in its text. Otherwise let links open in the same window, and let visitors decide for themselves whether they want a second one.

The counter-case

Some clients ask for the brochure by name, download it on an office computer and forward it to colleagues. For them, the PDF serves a real need.

Drawing packages, inspection certificates and similar documents are files by nature, and turning them into pages would help nobody.

The advice is not to remove the files. It is to label them, keep them light, and stop using them in place of pages people expect.

Every link that opens a file

  1. List every link on the site that opens a file.
  2. Add the type and size to each link's text.
  3. Point menu links at pages, never at files.
  4. Turn equipment lists and prices into page text.
  5. Save brochures again at screen resolution.
  6. Replace scanned PDFs with text-based, tagged files.
  7. Test each link on an Android phone and with a screen reader.

Step three matters most. A menu is where visitors expect pages, and a file there breaks that expectation for everyone, not just those using a screen reader.

Another way a page can show one thing to the eye and say another to a screen reader appears in headings typed with stars and spaced-out letters.

Frequently asked questions

Why is a link to a PDF a problem?

Visitors expect a page and get a download instead: a wait on a phone, a file in a downloads folder, or a separate program with no obvious way back.

What should a link to a file say?

What the file is, its type and its size, in the visible link text, such as Capabilities brochure (PDF, 12 MB). Do the same for spreadsheets and documents.

Is a tooltip enough to warn visitors?

No. Phones do not show tooltips, and screen readers announce them inconsistently. Put the type and size in the link text that everyone can see.

Which content should be a page instead of a file?

Anything read on screen to make a decision: services, capabilities, equipment, prices and hours. Keep PDFs for forms, certificates, drawings and documents people print.

How can a PDF be made more accessible?

Create it from text rather than scanned images, save it as a tagged file with headings and reading order, set a title, and give it a descriptive file name.

Why does the file size matter?

Phone visitors on data pay for every megabyte, and slow connections may never finish. Brochures saved for print can usually be saved again much smaller for screens.

West Coast Media Solutions Inc. provides web design, web development, hosting, digital marketing, and business consulting to organisations across Canada, drawing on more than twenty-five years in the field.

Menu links that download files?

Point us to your site, and we will list every link that opens a file and what each one should say.

Start a Conversation