WooCommerce with password protected downloadable PDF.

WooCommerce: How to Add a Password Protected Downloadable PDF

WordPress/WooCommerce provides a number of great features to add virtual and downloadable products on your website.  A typical virtual product that customers would pay for is a PDF.  PDFs that are sold usually are password protected so that they can’t be easily forwarded elsewhere without payment.  He is a basic tutorial on how to add a purchasable downloadable PDF to your WordPress website.

How to Add a PDF to WooCommerce

  1. Login into your WordPress site with the WooCommerce plugin installed.
  2. Click “Products” in left side navigation
  3. Click the “Add Product” button.
  4. Give Product a Name.
  5. Write a description of the product. Be as descriptive as possible to help your page being indexed with search engines.
  6. Add a Featured Product Image and images for product gallery (if applicable).
  7. Add a short description for your product under the Product Short Description section.
  8. Under Product Data, your product should be set as a Simple product in the product type dropdown. Be sure to have the Virtual and Downloadable checkboxes selected.
  9. On the General tab under product data, be sure to add the cost of your PDF (Regular price ($)). Sale price can be empty and is only used if you are running a sale.
  10. Add the files that customers are able to purchase under the Downloadable files section of the General tab. This is where you add your password protected PDF. You can also add a text file that has the password for the PDF if you wish.
  11. Be sure to change the “Download limit” and “Download expiry” to your liking. The Download type can stay “Standard Product”. NOTE: The “Download limit” feature limits the number of times that the customer can click the download link to download the PDF. The download link is sent in the transactional email from the purchase.
  12. The Inventory, Linked Products and Attributes tabs are not necessary for you for this type of product but, by all means, look through these features.
  13. The advanced tab has a Purchase Note field if you wish to give the password in the transactional email.
  14. Be sure to publish or update your product by clicking the blue “Publish” or “Update” button and then view/test your page.

WooCommerce virtual downloadable PDF settings.

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