Add Dashicons to Show File Type for Download Links

You may have different kinds of files or file types for your website visitors to download, such as Microsoft Word or Excel documents, or Google Docs or Sheets, PDFs or e-books, or even audio or video files.

This WordPress tutorial shows how you can use dashicons to provide your visitors with a visual indication of the file type of the download link, so they don’t start downloading a file type that they prefer to use on another device, for instance on their laptop, rather than on their phone.

Some other tutorials using dashicons:

• Add Dashicons to Your WordPress Post
• Use WordPress Dashicons to Add Font Icons to Your Genesis Theme

Use Dashicons

Dashicons are easy to use to identify the download file type because they are already part of the WordPress Admin.

First, you will need to enqueue the dashicons to use on the front side of your website.

Open your child theme functions.php in a text editor, and add the following.

<?php
// Remove line above

// Enqueue Dashicons
add_action( 'wp_enqueue_scripts', 'custom_enqueue_scripts' );
function custom_enqueue_scripts() {

	wp_enqueue_style( 'dashicons' );

}

If your theme already has an ‘wp_enqueue_scripts’ function, you can just add to it instead. For instance, in the Genesis Sample theme, you can add it to the Enqueue Google Fonts section to look like this.

<?php
// Remove line above

// Enqueue Google Fonts
add_action( 'wp_enqueue_scripts', 'genesis_sample_google_fonts' );
function genesis_sample_google_fonts() {

	// Enqueue Google Fonts
	wp_enqueue_style( 'google-fonts', '//fonts.googleapis.com/css?family=Lato:300,400,700', array(), CHILD_THEME_VERSION );

	// Enqueue Dashicons
	wp_enqueue_style( 'dashicons' );

}

Choose Your Icons

Choose your dashicons from this page; especially look at those in the Media section. Depending on the file types you’ll have for your visitors to download, you can choose the icons you like. Here are some to try.

• document – \f497
• spreadsheet – \f495
• e-book – \f330 or \f331
• audio – \f500
• video – \f490

Add Icons to Style Sheet

Next identify the file extension for your file type – .doc, .docx, .xls, .xlsx, .mp3, .mov, .mp4, .pdf, .mobi, .epub.

You will use a line with the extension you require, like this:
a[href $='.docx']:before
This line adds the icon before any link that ends with .docx

Next open your child theme style.css with a text editor or use a Custom CSS plugin, and add the following for each file type.

Documents

/* Documents */
a[href $='.doc']:before,
a[href $='.docx']:before { 
	-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;
	color: #046ca3;
	content: "\f497";
	display: inline-block;
	font: normal 24px/1 'dashicons';
	margin-right: 5px;
	position: relative;
		top: 2px;
	vertical-align: top;
}

Explanation of the CSS

• color – use any color you like for your icons
• content: “\f497”; – this identifies the icon
•  display: inline-block; keeps the icon inline with the text
• font: normal 24px/1 ‘dashicons’; This is shorthand for font-family: dashicons; font-weight: normal; font-size: 24px; line-height: 1; You can try larger or smaller font-size.
• margin-right: 5px; to add space between the file name and icon
• position: relative; top: 2px; and vertical-align: top; help with alignment; adjust as needed.

Spreadsheet

/* Spreadsheet */
a[href $='.xls']:before,
a[href $='.xlsx']:before { 
	-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;
	color: #77a13b;
	content: "\f495";
	display: inline-block;
	font: normal 24px/1 'dashicons';
	margin-right: 5px;
	position: relative;
		top: 2px;
	vertical-align: top;
}

E-book

/* E-book */
a[href $='.pdf']:before,
a[href $='.mobi']:before,
a[href $='.epub']:before { 
	-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;
	color: #e5740c;
	content: "\f330";
	display: inline-block;
	font: normal 24px/1 'dashicons';
	margin-right: 5px;
	position: relative;
		top: 2px;
	vertical-align: top;
}

Audio

/* Audio */
a[href $='.mp3']:before { 
	-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;
	color: #c05ffe;
	content: "\f500";
	display: inline-block;
	font: normal 24px/1 'dashicons';
	margin-right: 5px;
	position: relative;
		top: 2px;
	vertical-align: top;
}

Video

/* Video */
a[href $='.mp4']:before,
a[href $='.mov']:before { 
	-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;
	color: #e74a41;
	content: "\f490";
	display: inline-block;
	font: normal 24px/1 'dashicons';
	margin-right: 5px;
	position: relative;
		top: 2px;
	vertical-align: top;
}

Will you add dashicons in your WordPress or Genesis theme to show the file type for your download links?