Do you want to embed PDF, spreadsheet, and other types of documents in your WordPress blog posts?
WordPress comes with a powerful content editor and allows you to easily embed videos, tweets, audio, and other media formats using the embed blocks.
You can also upload other type of files that users can download. However, it is not possible to embed files like PDF, spreadsheet, and other documents in your blog posts.
In this article, we’ll show you how to embed PDF, spreadsheet, powerpoint, and other documents in your WordPress blog posts.
To help you navigate this guide, we have created the table of contents here.
- Adding PDF in WordPress Blog Posts without Plugin
- Embedding PDF in WordPress Posts Using the PDF Viewer Plugin
- Embedding Spreadsheets, and Other Types of Documents in WordPress
- How to Embed SlideShare Presentations in WordPress Posts
- Embedding Google Docs, Sheets, and Others in WordPress Posts
Now, let’s get started with the guide.
Adding PDF in WordPress Blog Posts without Plugin
By default, WordPress doesn’t offer full embed option for PDF documents; however, you can add them as links in your blog posts.
This option is useful if you don’t want to add a plugin to your website.
Simply add the File block to your WordPress post or page and then upload your PDF file.
Once you have uploaded the PDF file, WordPress will display the file name with a download button. You can edit the file name and download button text.
You also have the option to show or hide the download button and choose whether it links to the file itself or the attachment page.
You can use this method to upload Microsoft Word documents, Excel spreadsheets, and PowerPoint presentations to your website.
While this method is easier and straight-forward, it does not embed the documents which means users have to download the file to view it, and this may not be very user friendly depending on the use-case.
Let’s take a look at some other ways to embed documents in WordPress.
Embedding PDF in WordPress Posts Using Embed PDF Viewer Plugin
As shown above, displaying the PDF files as links will lead your website visitors away from your site.
In this method, we will cover how to easily embed the document in your WordPress posts and pages.
First, you need to install and activate the Embed PDF Viewer plugin. For detailed instructions, see our step by step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.
Once the plugin is activated, simply create a new post or edit an existing one to embed a PDF document.
In the WordPress post edit screen, click on the Add New Block icon, and select the PDF block under Embeds section.
After that, you can upload a new PDF file to your post, select one from your media library or insert from URL.
Once you select the file, you can see the PDF file embedded in your blog post. You can also resize the embed area and add additional CSS from the block options on the left side.
Once you’re done with customization, simply save your post and preview it on your live website. Here’s how it appeared on our demo website.
Embedding Microsoft Word, Spreadsheet, and Other Documents in WordPress
The plugin mentioned above only lets you embed PDF files into your WordPress site.
If you want to embed more document types like Microsoft Word, Excel spreadsheet, PowerPoint presentation, etc, then you need to use another plugin.
First, you need to install and activate the Embed Any Document plugin on your website.
Next, create a new post or open an existing one to embed a document. Once done, add the Document block under the Embeds section.
After that, you need to click on the Add Document button.
Next, you can upload a document or add from a URL. The paid plugin users can also attach documents from Google Drive, Dropbox, and Box.
Once you choose the document to embed, you will see the options to customize the embed. You need to review them and click the Insert button.
Once done, you can see the document embedded in your post. You can also review the document display options again from the block options panel on the left side.
Save your post and preview it on your live website. Here’s how the embedded spreadsheet looked on our demo website.
Embedding SlideShare Presentations in WordPress Posts
Unlike PDF and other documents, WordPress allows you to easily embed content from third-party services into your website.
It has built-in embed options for YouTube videos, Tweets, Facebook updates, SlideShare presentations, and many more.
Best of all, the new WordPress block editor includes separate embed blocks for them.
To embed a SlideShare presentation in your WordPress blog post, create a new post, or edit an existing one. Next, click on the Add New Block icon and add the SlideShare block in your post edit area.
Next, you need to visit the SlideShare website and copy the link of a SlideShare presentation that you want to embed.
Once done, paste the link in the embed SlideShare block and click on the Embed button.
After that, you can see the SlideShare presentation embedded in your blog post. You can review the block options on the left side, and save your post.
Once done, you can preview the embedded SlideShare presentation live on your website. Here’s how it looked on our demo website.
How to Embed Google Docs, Sheets, and Others in WordPress
In the above examples, we have covered how to add PDF and other documents from your local computer. However many users nowadays use Google Drive to create and store documents (specially small business owners).
Similar to Microsoft Word, Excel Sheets, and PowerPoint presentations, Google Drive also lets you create Docs, Sheets, Presentations, and other online documents.
If you have created documents in Google Drive, then you can easily embed these files in your WordPress posts by using the iFrame method.
To embed a Google doc in WordPress, you need to open the document in your browser first. After that, go to the File menu and click on the “Publish to the web” option.
After that, a new popup window will appear. You need to select the Embed option and then click on the Publish button.
Once done, it will provide you an iFrame embed code. Go ahead and copy the code.
Next, you need to create a new post or edit an existing one to embed the Google doc. In your post editor, add the Custom HTML block to insert the embed code.
Once the Custom HTML block is added in your post edit area, paste the embed code that you copied before.
You may need to add height and width parameters to the embed code. Simply add the parameters to the iframe code like this:
<iframe src="https://docs.google.com/document/d/e/2PACX-1vQXyRM7bAOY2Em38yYkFKDlFwMp7tlofsdfdgeGDFg4lVkv_9HB_5WbGLwfMScaGQmDf34mIH/pub?embedded=true" width="550" height="600"></iframe>
After that, you can save your post and then preview it on your live website. Here is how it appeared on our demo website.
You can now use this method to embed other documents from your Google Drive account to WordPress.
We hope this article helped you to learn how to embed PDF, spreadsheet, and other documents in WordPress posts. You may also want to see our guide on how to manage, track, and control file downloads in WordPress.
If you want to restrict files and content to logged in users only, then you need to use a WordPress membership plugin to create a membership website.
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Hi,
I have several embedded documents in my website. since I started embedding the power-point slides, Google stopped indexing my site. Could there be a problem?
Hey Joseph,
Embeds are usually not an issue with SEO. However, if the main content area of your website only contains an iframe embed with no other content surrounding it, then it will be harder for search engines to rank those pages. They will be crawled and indexed but will not perform well for the keywords you are trying to target.
way to FAST! cannot get instruction as going SO SO FAST
Did not know you could embed pdf files inside blog posts. Is it possible to keep the view of the embedded pdf on a particular page? Like, page 2 is shown in the embed instead of default 1st page?
Thanks a lot in advance,
Prasad
My PDF file embeds and there’s a download hyperlink for people to use. Is there a way I can count the number of downloads from my site?
Hi,
I tried to follow this video, but when I tried to use the mentioned plugin, Sucuri security gives me an error saying “Access to backdoor or suspected location denied”. How can I embed spreadsheets or PDFs on my site? Please help.
dont use such plugin this will hack your site
Looks like the plugin is outdated. Try ‘Embed Any Document’ instead.
Thanks for the above tutorial. Please i want to embed a PDF in my post and make people download it only when they give my page on facebook a like. I would be happy if you would help me.
I have hyperlinks within my pdf document that I would like to embed in my wordpress post. Is there any way to make these hyperlinks active within the post?
Googlle document embedded is discontinued.. They say if it still works , good., but don’t call if it does not. Problem is now although I can upload a PDFs document with Google Document embedded, the hyperlinks with in the doCumenet do not work. I’ve tried several PDFs embedded and None allow hyperlinks gas to work. Does anyone have a solution for this?
Your site is fantastic! Thank you so much. It is easy to follow and on the right level.
I have installed the plugin and updated a PDF, then deleted the plugin but now there is a PDF icon on all the pages. I can’t seem to locate the file to delete it. It was google page view plugin. How can I locate and delete it?
I was searching for a solution to embed a working Excell document in a WP site and this really helped me! Just one thing: there is a button in the document but the button does not show in the WP site. Do you know how to solve this problem?
Thanks!
Sorry but it is not working anymore and there is no feedback from the creators. Below is the error message you get and this file is only 1.87Mb.
This happened as soon as WordPress updated to the latest version.
You’ve reached the bandwidth limit for viewing or downloading files that aren’t in Google Docs format. Please try again later.
Are these embedded documents searchable?
Hi, I want to embed a Google form (doc) on my WordPress website. How can I do this?
Simply create your Google Form, and then click on the Send button, this will bring up a popup. Click on the embed button in the popup to get the embed code. Copy and paste this code inside your post or pages.
awsm post sir!
Thank you for sharing it is informative but on thing i would like to ask we should upload . documents on our host or should upload it on Google drive. which method is good for seo.
Uploading them on your site would be better if your PDF files do not contain encrypted text then search engines can read and index them as well.
I embedded an Excel spreadsheet and it embeds as a solid image in the Google Docs Viewer. How do I get it to work as a spreadsheet in WordPress?
Okay so I have come a little bit closer to making this work but I havent quite got there yet. The error message i get now is “Sorry, we were unable to find the document at the original source. Verify that the document still exists. You can also try to download the original document by clicking here.” So when I click “Here” the page comes up no problem. Any ideas why this is the case?
I have the same problem and it seems that the plugin only works when the document is accessible for Google. Behind a firewall in an Intranet the plugin is showing this behavior.
I am having the same problem, I uploaded directly from my computer, not google drive. It shows the error above in the viewer, but the download link works. Any help?
Do you know of a workaround for IE? Can’t help but wonder why 49% of my users are using IE…
Which version of IE is this not working in?
Is there a way to add a document on your site that has fill-in areas that later can be printed out?
For example, a contract where someone can fill in their name and the date and either download it with their name or print it?
Editable PDFs have to be done on your computer end not on WordPress end. If you upload a PDF that has editable fields, then the web browser will understand that.
Thanks so much for this tutorial. But I’m wondering — is there a way to make the PDF take up the whole page, rather than showing up as an image within the wordpress site frame? The PDF is of my resume, and I’d like my “resume” tab to open a page that has the resume taking up the full screen…
Hey Emily,
You should consider uploading your PDF by going to Media tab and Add New. Then link directly to that PDF. Send us an email using the contact form if you get stuck
thanx for this plugin. i never knew der was a viewer too….i used to simply link the pdf file to the site its available on!
@smseleem remove the menu item – http://wpbeg.in/irllKU
@wpbeginner Can you help how can I disable Theme Option in WordPress Admin Panel?
@wpbeginner Nice! Thanks for sharing. Cool way to share presentations and the like without going to Slideshare.
Thats great! I have always uploaded the document and created a 301 from the page tab. being able to use shortcode to embed them in the page could be very helpful. Thanks for the tip.
This was something I’ve been looking for. I’m going to get the plugin and find out where you got that shortcode from.
good stuff
Looks like an excellent read, thanks