Moodle Help

Help and Support (Staff)

This is one of many help and support pages that are available about the University of Nottingham's Moodle online learning environment. If you have any questions or queries concerning Moodle then contact information is at the bottom of every page.

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This refers to Moodle 3.11 from August 2022 onwards

Moodle Help & Support 


How to upload files

You can add a variety of types of files to Moodle including PowerPoint presentations, Word documents and PDFs. The instructions below will show you how to upload any file allowed in Moodle.  Note that although it is possible to add more than one file it is not advisable as Moodle will display only one of the files. Upload one file at a time.

Note: If your file is an audio file (e.g., .mp3) or a video (e.g., .mp4) then please use the Media Resource upload instead: see How to upload audio and video to Moodle



The Quick Way

  1. Navigate to your module and click on the 'Turn editing on' button  (top right).
  2. Scroll to the section where you want to add a file.
  3. Open a second window on your screen and locate the file you wish to upload.
  4. Drag and drop the file into the page. A broken bordered box (labelled 'Add file here') will appear to drop the file into.


Dragging a file into Moodle

5. The file will appear at the bottom of the section. You can then move it, rename it, or edit its settings.

6. When you had added the file, don't forget to 'Turn editing off' at the top right of the Moodle page 


Full method, step by step

  1. Navigate to your module and click on the 'Turn editing on' button  (top right).
  2. The Add an activity or resource link  appears at the bottom of every section. Click on it to add the file 
  3. This will produce a pop-up window listing Activities and Resources. Find 'File' on this list and click on the word.

4. You will be taken directly to the 'Adding a new File' screen

5. Enter the 'Name' of the resource (e.g. PowerPoint for Lecture 1: Concepts and Definitions) and a 'Description', if you wish

6. You can drag and drop files - from a folder on your computer, if you have the folder and the Moodle page open together - into the content section (see below) OR


    1. To select a previously uploaded file: browse to it (e.g., via Server files) and click 'Select this file'
    2. To upload a file:

    • Click the 'Add file' button (top left of image below)


Adding a file

      • Click on 'Upload a file'
      • Click 'Choose file'

      • Browse to your file, select and click 'Open'
      • Click on the 'Upload this file' button


  1. 7. Click the grey triangle next to "Appearance" to drop down the section and, for "Display", select 'Open'. This section asks you to decide how you want the file to be displayed when you click on the file icon in the module.

Appearance settings

        8. Click 'Save and return to module' or 'Save and Display'

 Saving a file

9. When you had added the file, don't forget to 'Turn editing off' at the top right of the Moodle page   

Display options

You can choose to display the file in different ways. In the instructions above we recommended Open because this is normally the best option for all computers and mobile devices.

Automatic - Moodle chooses how to display the file (normally embed).

Embed - Show the Moodle page with heading, blocks and footer. Show the title/description of the item and display the file directly in the page as well (good for images, PDFs).

THE DEFAULT OPTION: New Window - The same as 'Open' but in a new window.

Force download - user clicks on the file, then the web browser pops up with the 'where do you want to save this file' box.  Most appropriate for code files and those which do not display on the Web.

RECOMMENDED SETTING: Open - No Moodle heading, blocks, footer or description - the file is simply shown in the web browser (e.g. shows image, PDF, etc., taking up the whole browser window)  This can get round the issue of scrolling within the page which sometimes happens with long PDFs or Word documents. This is now the recommended setting to allow files to be better viewed on Android tablets and iPads which do not support embedding.

In pop-up - Same as 'Open', but opens a new browser window to show this file (without the Moodle heading, blocks, etc) - this browser window also does not have all the menus and address bar in it.

Similar tutorials

Queries, comments or questions?

Please contact your local elearning support team.


Phone: (0115 95) 16677
or contact via the Self Service PortaI


Phone: (0574) 8818 0000 (ext. 8915)
or email: learning-technologies@nottingham.edu.cn


Phone: (03) 8924 81 99
or email: itservicedesk@nottingham.edu.my

Incorrect?

If you have any comments on how you think this help can be improved then please email Learning-Technologies@nottingham.ac.uk