HTML Art

DOWNLOADABLE ZIP FILES

Most web hosts nowadays do not allow you to put exe or pdf or other files on their servers and the browser may not be able to view or execute certain file types. In that scenario it's useful to be able to zip these files up and, provided they are in a size compatible with both your web host's server and that of your ISP you will in most cases be able to place these files on your web host's server for users to download.

It's very easy to make a clickable link to download a file. The link is made exactly like a normal hyperlink, except that instead of an html file you use the zip file name. The browser should automatically be able to open up the dialogue box for the user to save the file to his/her machine, and then unzip the file locally after it has been scanned with antivirus software.

It is always advisable to scan files downloaded from the Internet in this way with antivirus software because viruses can come from anywhere - even from the host server if another user has uploaded a file which is infected, knowingly or unknowingly.

The syntax to follow is:-

You can make an image link in exactly the same way. Just change the text link to an image and it will work just as well.