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Documents

Upload and organize your society's documents — bylaws, policies, board minutes, financial reports, anything that isn't a newsletter or library item. Each document, or a whole section, can be public or members-only.

What you can do

  • Upload PDFs, Word documents, spreadsheets — anything the WordPress Media Library accepts.
  • Organize them into sections (Bylaws, Financial Reports, Board Meeting Minutes, Policies…).
  • Make a document, or a whole section, public or members-only.
  • Upload many documents at once into a section.
  • Show minutes by month and year, show when a living document like the bylaws was last updated, and choose how each section is sorted.
  • Show them on a page of your site, grouped by section.

How to add your first document

Meetings & Board → Documents → Add Document. Title, description, the file, the section it belongs in, a document date, and Access Level (Public or Members Only). Status can be Published or Draft. Save.

For sensitive documents (board financials, executive session minutes), choose Members Only — or put them in a members-only section. The check happens before the file is handed over, so a members-only file can't be downloaded by someone who isn't signed in.

Each document is also filed in its section's folder on Website → Files.

How to organize sections

Meetings & Board → Document Sections. Add sections in the order you want them to appear. For each one:

  • Access — Public, or Members only. Members only makes every document in the section members-only, whatever each document says.
  • Display Format — Title & description, or Month & year (for minutes and other dated archives).
  • Last Updated — show each document's last-updated date, so members can tell the bylaws are current.
  • List By — manual order, newest first, or title A to Z.

A starter set many societies use: Bylaws, Articles of Incorporation, Financial Reports, Board Meeting Minutes, Membership Meeting Minutes, Committee Documents, Policies, Member Resources.

How to show documents on your site

Create a page (Website → Pages → Add New Page) and set Page Type to Documents. The Documents screen offers to make this page for you if you don't have one. It lists your published documents grouped by section, with a download link for each. Members see the documents they're allowed to; visitors who aren't signed in see only public ones.

How to upload many at once

On the Documents list, click Upload Many. Choose the files and the section they belong in; each file becomes a document titled from its file name. Edit titles and descriptions afterwards.

For very large batches, upload in groups so your host's time limit isn't reached.

How to replace a document with a newer version

Open the document, remove the old file, choose the new one, and save. The document keeps its place, title and link; there's no history of earlier versions, so keep the old file elsewhere if you need it.

If something looks wrong

A member can't download a document they should be able to. Check their status. Members-only documents need an active membership; lapsed or expired members are treated as visitors.

A public document asks people to sign in. Check the document's Access Level and its section's Access — a members-only section makes every document in it members-only.

Bulk upload stalled. Try again with fewer files at a time; long uploads can hit your host's time limit.

A replaced document still downloads the old file. If a caching plugin is installed (W3 Total Cache, WP Super Cache, LiteSpeed Cache), clear its cache.