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Elementor document widget

GoDAM for WordPress v2.2.0 Updated: 2026-08-27

The GoDAM Document widget puts a document on an Elementor page with a real preview, so readers can page through it without downloading anything first. Show it as an inline viewer sized to your layout, or as a compact card with a cover image, title, description and page count that links to the file.

It’s the Elementor counterpart of the GoDAM Document block and renders through the same GoDAM front end, so the same document looks identical wherever you place it. Like the block, it takes more than PDFs: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OpenDocument, plain text and CSV files all work. Anything that isn’t already a PDF is converted to a preview PDF by GoDAM Central, so the widget always displays a PDF while your readers still download the original file you uploaded. The GoDAM Document widget is available in GoDAM 2.2 and later.

What you’ll need

  • You’re on GoDAM 2.2 or later, installed and connected to your account.
  • Elementor is active.
  • For anything other than a PDF: a connected GoDAM account, since Central does the conversion. PDFs display without it.

How to add the widget

Step 1: Open the page or post you want to edit in Elementor, or create a new one.

Step 2: In the widget panel, search for GoDAM Document. You’ll find Document under the GoDAM widget category, pdf and file find it too.

Step 3: Drag the widget into the section or column where you want the document. It stays empty until you choose a file, so don’t be surprised by a blank spot on the canvas.

Step 4: In the Document Settings panel, use Select Document to pick a file from your media library. The picker is filtered to the formats the widget can display.

Step 5: The remaining options appear once a document is selected. Optionally set a Doc Title and Description, then choose the View:

  • Default View — an inline viewer. Set Height (px) below it, anywhere from 200 to 1200 pixels.
  • Card View — a compact card. Turn on Show Cover to give it a cover image, then leave Cover Image empty to use the auto-generated cover (Central renders it from the first page) or select your own. A 16:9 image works best.

Step 6: Update or publish the page.

If you selected something other than a PDF and Central hasn’t converted it yet, the widget shows the download-only state rather than a preview, it renders the real front end, not an authoring hint. Reload once conversion finishes.

Widget settings

All of these sit in the Document Settings section, and everything below Select Document appears only once a document is chosen.

  • Select Document: the file to display. PDF, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OpenDocument, TXT and CSV.
  • Doc Title: an optional heading. Leave it empty to use the attachment’s title.
  • Description: optional text, shown in Card View.
  • View: Default View for the embedded viewer, or Card View for a card with a cover image.
  • Height (px): Default View only. A slider from 200 to 1200 pixels in steps of 10, defaulting to 600.
  • Show Cover: Card View only. Off by default; turning it on reveals the cover picker.
  • Cover Image: Card View with Show Cover on. Leave empty for the auto-generated cover. Recommended aspect ratio 16:9.
  • Caption: optional caption text.

Elementor’s own layout, spacing and advanced controls apply as usual.

On the front end, a card shows its page count and file size, for example 12 pages • 1.4 MB, falling back to the file name when neither is known. Clicking the card opens the original file, not the converted preview.

Troubleshooting

“Unsupported file format.” The selected file isn’t a format the widget can display, and it renders nothing at all on the published page — the notice is editor-only, so a visitor would just see a gap. Select a supported file in the Document Settings panel.

I picked a .srt or a source file and it was rejected. WordPress reports those as plain text, so they appear in the picker alongside real .txt files, but they have no conversion path and can’t be displayed.

The preview never appears for a Word or Excel file. Conversion runs on GoDAM Central, so check the document’s transcode status in the media library and confirm a valid API key under GoDAM → Settings. A file that was never dispatched, no API key at upload time, won’t convert; re-upload once the key is in place.

Readers see only a download link where the viewer should be. Either the preview isn’t ready, the file is password protected, Central stores those as-is and can’t open them to build a preview, or your site’s Content Security Policy is blocking the viewer, which needs JavaScript plus its own worker and a fetch for the PDF. Card View sidesteps the CSP case.

Height does nothing. It only applies to Default View. Switch back from Card View.

Cover Image isn’t in the panel. It needs View set to Card View and Show Cover turned on.

Readers download an .xlsx but the page showed a PDF. That’s intended. The preview is a converted PDF; the download is always the file you uploaded.