Add Dashicons to Show File Type for Download Links

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dashicons for file types on 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:

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 this line before adding to functions.php

// 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

You can add the CSS below to Appearance > Customize > Additional CSS.

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?

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photo of Marcy Diaz who owns Amethyst Website Design

Comments

5 responses to “Add Dashicons to Show File Type for Download Links”

  1. Brad Avatar
    Brad

    Didn’t see one for PDF?

    1. Marcy Diaz Avatar

      Hi, Brad. Thanks for stopping by.
      There isn’t a specific pdf icon. Since most pdfs today are ebooks, that’s the icon I used in the tutorial.
      Others that you could use are:
      “dashicons-media-default” – “\f498”
      “dashicons-media-text” – “\f491”

      1. Brad Avatar
        Brad

        No worries. I added a note to Mel on Trac so he may add one at some stage. Seems like a good idea. Nice tut!

      2. Marcy Diaz Avatar

        Thanks, Brad!
        Great that you added a note to Mel; I would never have thought of that. Thanks!

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