How to Embed a Word Document in WordPress
When you write something in Word, you may not always feel like sharing it on your WordPress website as a post. Sure, you can upload the file to your pages, but if you don’t want to allow users to download it, embedding is the best solution. At the moment, though, you can’t do that relying solely on the default features of WordPress.
There are two ways of embedding Word documents in WordPress and we’ll share them with you. Stick with us and you’ll learn:
To facilitate the process of embedding documents in your pages and posts, plugins come to the rescue. We talked about the ones you can use to embed PDF files and Google Sheets in WordPress, but now’s the time we learned which plugin to use to embed a Word document in WordPress.
We did some testing, and the plugin we’d like to recommend is Embed Any Document.
This is a powerful plugin that currently counts over 70k active installations. The authors update it regularly, and it’s tested up to the latest version of WordPress. The premium version is also available for $25, and it grants you a bit more options. For example, with Embed Any Document Plus, you can embed Google Docs, as well as the files you host on Dropbox and Box. But the free version can do exactly what we need, and that’s embed a Word document in WordPress.
Install the Plugin
Head over to your WordPress dashboard and select Plugins > Add New. Find the plugin in the library, then install and activate it.
Upload Your Word Document
Now’s the time to open the page or a post into which you want to embed the Word document.
To do that in Classic editor, go to Pages > Add New. Since you’ve activated the Embed Any Document plugin, you’ll notice the Add Document option (next to the default Add Media button).
Click on it to upload your file or paste the document URL.
Once you’ve uploaded the document, you’ll be able to customize the embed.
The plugin allows you to set the width and the height of the embed, choose whether or not the download link will be visible, and if so, who can download the file. You can also enter the text that will be displayed on the download link, and select the embed viewer. The shortcode of your embed is listed, too.
When you finish making all the necessary adjustments, click on Insert, to see the Word document embedded in your WordPress page.
If you’re using Gutenberg, in that case, you should insert the Document block to your page.
And then, upload your Word file.
Once you have selected the desired document, you’ll be able to modify the embed, just like you could in the classic editor. You can make adjustments to these settings whenever you like since they’re displayed at the right-hand side of the screen at all times.
You can always preview your page, before saving any changes, just to make sure it looks the way you imagined.
Google Drive is our friend, in more ways than one. Not only can you use it to store and share important files, but this online storage space is also a true life-saver when it comes to embedding various types of files in WordPress. And Word documents aren’t any different.
To embed a Word document in WordPress without using the plugin, you should first upload the file to Google Drive. We discussed this in our guide on how to embed PDF files in your posts and pages, but we’ll walk you through this process once more, so all the information you need is listed in one place.
Head over to your Google Drive account, and in the top left corner select New > File Upload.
Find your Word file and add it to the drive.
Now that the file is uploaded, click two times on it to preview it. Then, press the More Actions button (the three vertical dots) and from the dropdown menu select Share, which is the first option.
We want to ensure your users can view the Word file, which is why we’re going to select the Anyone with the Link Can View option.
Furthermore, we also suggest making adjustments to some of the advanced options. Depending on the content of your Word document, you may not always want to allow others to download, print, or copy the file. To prevent everyone from doing so, click on Advanced and check the second box.
Now that this is settled, let’s get you one step closer to embedding your Word document in WordPress.
Upon saving the changes you’ve made, once more, click on the More Actions button (the three dots) and select the Open in New Window option.
The file will open in the new window and the three dots will re-appear. Click on them and select Embed item.
After that, you’ll get the iframe code you need in order to embed the file in your pages.
Copy the code, go to your WordPress dashboard, and select Pages > Add New.
If you’re using Classic Editor, paste the code in the text editor and save your changes.
In Gutenberg, you should first add the Custom HTML block and then paste the iframe code into it.
You can also make some small changes to the code. For instance, if you wish to alter the width and the height of the embedded file, you can do so by modifying the final two parameters of the code. In our case, the width is currently at 640 px and the height at 480 px. But, we can change the numbers if need be, so that the Word file fits better the overall look of the page it’s been embedded into.
And that would be all on how to embed a Word document in WordPress the non-plugin way.
Final Thoughts
No matter which option you decide to go with, either by using the Embed Any File plugin or Google Drive, both methods are easy to use and require no coding knowledge. As always, it’s up to you to decide which of the two ways better suits your preferences, but ultimately, what matters is that now you have the knowledge and the skills to embed a Word document in WordPress with no hassle at all.
