Documents In Drupal

A Couple Rules

PDFs are the only document type that is approved for upload into Drupal. No Word docs, no PowerPoints, no Excel Spreadsheets, etc.
All PDFs must pass latest WCAG Accessibility standards before they are uploaded into Drupal. That is your responsibility to ensure.
- You can use Adobe Acrobat to run accessibility scans on and update your PDF accordingly if it was not already optimized for accessibility before it was converted into a PDF. See this page on the Adobe website for guidance.
All PDFs must be optimized for Web. They must be less than 10 MB in size to be uploaded into Drupal. See this helpful video for guidance.
PDFs vs. a normal Basic Page: A Basic Page is always going to be the ADA compliant (Accessible) option. PDFs should really only be used for print-ready items that are static and don't update often, like a flyer or a report. There is a very small use-case for such exceptions on our sites. For these reasons we strongly discourage the use of PDFs. Flipbooks are prohibited.

On this page:

How to Upload a new PDF into Drupal (Ex: this is new content with no existing version of this PDF in existence on Drupal already)
How to Link to a PDF
How to Update a current PDF in Drupal (Ex: there is an existing PDF already in Drupal but you need to upload a newer version)

This is for new content with no existing version currently in existence on Drupal already

Ensure the document is in an optimized, accessible, PDF format. (Word, PowerPoint, and Excel files are not allowed)
The file name must be clear and simple (e.g. annual-report-2025-q2.pdf)
- Separate words with hyphens instead of spaces
- Use all lowercase letters

Log in to Drupal
Hover over Content > Media > Add Media > Document
In the Name field, enter a human-readable, brief description of the PDF. This is separate from the file name in Step 1 and is what screen readers will announce to users. (e.g. "Q2 2025 Annual Report" or "Meeting Minutes - June 5, 2025")
- Use capital letters and spaces for readability
Click Choose File and select the PDF from your computer
Enter a description in the Description box
Enter copyright information in the Copyright section. If you created it yourself just say that in the field.
Ensure both boxes in the Visibility section are checked
Skip the Revision information section (unless updating an existing document)
Click Save to upload the file

Make sure you are logged in to your Drupal site
Navigate to the page where you want to add the PDF link.
Click Edit to modify the page content.
- If hyperlinking text in a WYSIWYG field, select/highlight the text where you want the link to appear.
Click the Link button.

In the Link URL field, start typing the human readable name you gave the PDF. A list of items with that name will appear.
Select the correct file from the dropdown under the Media - Document category.
Click the blue Apply button to save your work

If you are not choosing to link to your PDF via hyperlinked text, the other option is a simple URL field in any given component (Button, CTA, etc.) that has styling for a link built in to the functionality. In that case you simply start typing the human readable name of the PDF (same as you would in the example above) in the appropriate URL field.
- The Link text field is where you would type the text that displays as teh clickable item that takes a user to the PDF. Unless, of course you have otherwise selected the entire component to act as the hyperlinked object. Please reach out to the Digital Experience team if you need more clarification around this.
Click the blue Apply button to save your work

This is for updating an existing PDF with a newer version

Log in to your Drupal site.
Hover over the Content tab in the admin toolbar then select Media from the dropdown
On the Media page, type keywords from the human readable name of the current PDF into the Media name search field then click Filter
In the results that appear, click Edit on the right-hand side of the name of the appropriate document you wish to update
In the edit window, scroll down to the Document section and click the grey Remove button to remove the existing file.
Then click Choose File and upload the new version.
- If applicable, update the Name field to reflect the new version of the document (e.g. 2024 to 2025, etc.)
Click Save.
Done! Your document is now updated. All current links to this document will remain intact.

If you have any questions or run into any issues, please submit a ticket via our intake form.