How to manage 2,000 files? Help?

I guess it depends what are you trying to do with those PDF files (free or paid download).

Free downloads

Then it would be eaiser for you to:

1. Groupd the PDF files into folders, like

folder1
folder2
folder3
…

maybe adding 100 files per folder, so you can find theme easily.

2. Then use your local PC terminal to list the files running

dir folder1 > folder1.txt
dir folder2 > folder2.txt
… and so on

So you can open the text files using a professional text editor like

https://notepad-plus-plus.org/

and use block selection to get rid of the parts you don’t need, and add the codes you need like:

<a href="https://yourdomain.com/pdfs/folder1/blabla.pdf">Blabla Book</a>
<a href="https://yourdomain.com/pdfs/folder1/something.pdf">Something</a>
..

3. Paste the above code into WordPress pages

4. Upload your pdf files with the folders using FTP software like

https://filezilla-project.org/download.php?type=client

Thank you very much for this detailed instructions.

I’m just little confused when it comes to doing it this way as you described vs. using plugin to do similar. Any advantage of using plugin for that?

Also, I realized that this would be direct links to those files,
how would I prevent hotlinking or mass downloads with(Flashgot) or similar programs.

Thank you,

If it’s just for free direct download, I don’t see the point of a plugin. To prevent hotlinks, you can do that from .htaccess file

https://www.javascriptkit.com/howto/htaccess10.shtml

change the

gif|jpg|js|css

to

pdf

I really appreciate your help. You actually made me think that I will go back to my original plan of building my site with Dreamweaver and doing this steps in there since I’m not that familiar with WP.

So many people told me it must be done in WP because its easier to manage files and I have to use plugins to do that.

Thank you again

Why not use both? You can still create those links from Dreamweaver, copy and paste the code into WordPress page.

I don’t know what would be the benefit of using WP then?
Am I missing something of why I should use WordPress?

It’s not about WordPress, it’s more about using a Content Management System for dynamic contents (news, blogs, stuff that are added from time to time and listed in chronological order). If you only have static contents, then Dreamweaver will probably do fine if that is comfortable for you and you are the only editor.

For simple websites, I still tend to use a CMS, a more simple ones like:

https://get-simple.info/

there is practically no learning curve at all, because it is so simple. For why CMS, I guess the best reason is the ease of use. There is very little complicated HTML or code to deal with, specially if you have an editor that doesn’t know about Dreamweaver or HTML, uploading files, etc. And you can use any computer to update the site, without Dreamweaver or FTP client installed.

And most CMS already has themes, so you don’t have to design something from scratch. in Dreamweaver, you still have to deal with HTML code directly and changing contents can be a pain and time consuming in the future (like changing site design, which is a snap in WP).

I’m sure if you are familiar with WordPress its not a problem, but I’m just running into problem after problem with WP.

-Changed the theme I lost half of content
-Downloaded free theme asked for support everyone is referring me to theme author who doesn’t support free themes anymore unless I purchase something. So no help from community or from author.
-Installed plugin to test it, tried changing button color in setting didn’t work digged online 2 hours found little support for it from pluggin author folowed 3 simple steps that didn’t work and gave up because too much time wasted.
-Spent 2 hours today searching why i can’t upload 5MB file when limit is 8MB. After googling 50 people with same complain came out with 3 possible solutions. (Only one actually worked).
-I was finally happy and went for a break when I came back and tried uploading again it didn’t work again. (HTTP error.)

So back to square one. Wasted a lot of time and didn’t accomplish much.

When I see how many bugs and problems themes and plugins have it make me wonder how is my SEO gona look like for the site and which plugin or conflict will click bomb my adsense ads when I place them on the site.

On top of all this I came across Amazon Affiliate plugin which resets every couple of days deletes your affiliate account with amazon on your site and defaults it to plugin author amazon affiliate account.

Which means you cant trust a lot of authors, and you have to look at their code and make sure you understand everything otherwise you may just pay the price.

It may be funny to you but my experience with WordPress is total nightmare.

I see, maybe it’s because CMS is totally new to you. But I guess you just have to use the right tool for the job. For simple pages, I would just use static site generators:

https://phptrends.com/category/86