The download attribute in HTML is used with anchor (<a>) elements to indicate that the target of the link should be downloaded rather than navigated to. When a user clicks on a link with the download attribute, the browser will download the linked file instead of opening it in the browser window.
See how it works - compare these two buttons:
Adding the download attribute to a Text Link element:
To enable file downloads with a Text Link, simply add the download attribute and specify a value for it. If you don't add a value, the attribute won't be added.
Adding the download attribute to a Button element
When working with button elements, there's an important distinction to note. Since the <a> tag is wrapped in a Div, simply adding the download attribute like you would with a Text Link element won't work as expected - the attribute would be applied to the Div instead of the actual link.
Fortunately, there is a simple solution to ensure the download attribute gets properly applied to the link itself. Note that this time you don't need to add a value.
Adding the download attribute in a Rich Text element
To enable file downloads in a Rich Text element, you'll need to manually add the download attribute. Here's how:
- Insert your text and create the link normally
- Switch the editor to Text mode
- Add
downloadinside your anchor tag
Example: Download my cool PDF
