Creating links to Adobe files

November 25, 2008 8:26 AM

How can I link to downloadable Adobe Illustrator and EPS documents on our intranet?

We'd like to make our corporate logos available in in a variety of formats on our intranet, for download by employees who have graphics programs. We all use IE 6.0 by corporate mandate. (I don't have the problem described below when I use Firefox, but that's not an option for other employees.)

I uploaded the logos as Photoshop, Illustrator and EPS files and created links to them. When I click on a Photoshop file, I get a box with the option to open or save the file, but when I click on an Illustrator file I get nothing. If I right-click on an Illustrator file, the only "Save As..." option I get is Adobe Acrobat (PDF). My EPS file links allow saving only as a PostScript file, through either left or right clicks. How can I make my Illustrator/EPS files available for download?

posted by Joleta to computers & internet (6 comments total)

Zip them.
Obviously Windows is having issues mapping the filetypes to the preferred action. This probably has a lot to do with the fact that, at heart, Illustrator and EPS files are text files. Zip the files and IE will allow you to download them the way you want.
posted by Thorzdad at 9:02 AM on November 25, 2008

Thorzdad: I can't be sure employees have a program to unzip the files, and they aren't allowed to install new software. I'll offer that as an option, if I can't find any other way.
posted by Joleta at 9:54 AM on November 25, 2008

You could configure the web server to try to force a download for certain files by using the content-disposition header and/or setting a suitable MIME type. If you're using Apache and have .htaccess enabled then it's pretty easy, search for things like "force download htaccess"; if you're using IIS you might get away with just changing the MIME type for the affected file extensions to application/octet-stream, or could serve them via a simple dynamic page that changes the headers.
posted by malevolent at 9:58 AM on November 25, 2008

If your users have Windows XP or higher, then they will be able to unzip the files using built-in functionality. Also, there is a portable version of 7-zip which does not require installation in order to run.
posted by phrayzee at 10:12 AM on November 25, 2008

Self-extracting zip file? Can 7zip make one for you? That might be an option.

Alternately, can you make it an FTP link? IE6 should display it as a "Web folders" view, similar to the way it would show you things on your hard drive.
posted by caution live frogs at 11:15 AM on November 25, 2008

We've decided not to post the Illustrator and EPS files. Instead I've added a note to contact me if anyone really needs them. They would most likely be needed for an outside vendor (for logos on pens, etc.), and direct contact with the vendor would get them the best version of the logo for any particular purpose.
posted by Joleta at 5:29 AM on December 26, 2008