How to Put an E-Book on a Website
By Matthew Schieltz
Informational sites, online digital content stores and educational sites for colleges are a few of the places that use e-books to deliver content and helpful information to site visitors. The PDF (portable document format) file is one of the more common e-book formats used for the Web. Using this e-book format for your website, most visitors are able to read the document using a free PDF reader, such as Adobe Reader or Foxit Reader, or built-in Internet browser utilities.
Download a free PDF converter software program to help turn your document into a PDF e-book format. Programs that contain this conversion feature include CutePDF Writer by Acro Software, doPDF by Softland or PrimoPDF by Nitro PDF (see Resources). Install the software on your hard drive.
Open the word processing document that you need converted to a PDF e-book format. Click the "Print" option from the "File" menu. Select your PDF converter software program from the "Printer Name" drop-down box. Click "OK" in the Print dialog box. Select a folder or computer directory location from the "Save As" drop-down menu. Click "Save" to have your e-book saved as a PDF document on your hard drive.
Open your Internet browser and go to your website hosting's administration page or control panel. Enter the appropriate username and password to log in.
Click on the File Manager or FTP section of your web hosting control panel. Highlight the appropriate "index.html" folder or location to which you want your e-book uploaded by clicking once on its name.
Click on "Upload" or the particular button used to add new files from your computer. Click the "Browse" button to search for files on your computer. Find your e-book document file and double-click it to add it to the list of files to be uploaded to your website. Click the "Finish" or "Upload" button in your web hosting's file manager or FTP utility to have your e-book file sent to your web host's server.
Copy the full directory filename of the e-book you uploaded to your site. Click on the "View" option for your e-book file in your site's control panel. Highlight and copy the full URL of the e-book. The e-book file's location, when uploaded to your site correctly, begins with "http://" and end with ".pdf."
Go to the main HTML portion of the website page to which you add text and images because this is the place where you want to add your e-book file. Paste the e-book URL into the appropriate spot in your web page. Save your changes when finished.
Test the uploaded e-book file on your website. Log out of your website control panel. Type in your site's URL into the Internet browser's address bar and press "Enter." Find the spot where you uploaded your e-book and click the PDF file. If uploaded correctly, and assuming your browser contains a PDF reader, a browser window opens and your e-book appears.
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Writer Bio
Matthew Schieltz has been a freelance web writer since August 2006, and has experience writing a variety of informational articles, how-to guides, website and e-book content for organizations such as Demand Studios. Schieltz holds a Bachelor of Arts in psychology from Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio. He plans to pursue graduate school in clinical psychology.