Reply To: Downloads/associated documents in the sidebar?

Hi Alex,

Could you maybe convert these associated docs into ‘Task’ pages, BUT hide them from search? So basically you just recreate an HTML version of the document, which would be horrible as a ‘proper’ page on the site, but OK for purely background info – and possibly better than linking to a PDF or Word doc etc.

Then, you could use ‘Related’ so they are listed in the sidebar (but you wouldn’t stumble across them by other means).

I’m wondering how important it is that people read these docs – I’ve found people often overlook the RH column. If it’s something there’s a real user need for, eg to perform a task, is it a such a bad thing to refer to them inline, or as a link from main text which sets out what they’re for (eg ‘find out more’ or ‘download order form’) ?

Or even better, if it’s a form, embed it in the page using Gravity Forms, so they don’t have to go elsewhere to do the thing they came to do 🙂

I’ve had bad experiences with ‘associated documents’ which are sometimes just an excuse not to explain things clearly, relying instead on people reading ‘see also’ stuff they don’t really need… Just a thought