Make Microsoft Word documents downloadable

It would be better if you used the filefield to upload the Word docs. Just add support for the file types doc and docx. Then, when you create a node, you can upload the Word documents. Visitors to the node will see a link to download the file. I know this works as I have done it many times.

If you don't already have it, I'd suggest you install the Media Module.

Also, are you simply loading the files via ftp into the given directory, or are you attaching them to Nodes? If you simply do it like this, then the file will be click-to-download enabled by default:

1. Create a new content type (Structure - Content Type - Add)
2. In the new content type, you'll give it a name, maybe change a couple basic settings (such as unchecking "promoted to front page" under Publishing options unless you want the content to always show on the front page by default..
3. Click Save and Manage fields... or something about fields, I forget at the moment, and not looking at my site.
4. On the next page, add a new field, and make sure it's of the type, File, and then use the Media Selector for the widget.
5. Click save
6. On the next page (unless you get one in between that just has one button - I forget), specify the allowed extensions... for isntance, if you only want to allow Word docs, then you'll want to say something like: doc, docx
7. Change any other settings you like, click Save or Ok....
8. Create new content, using your new content type. Click on "Library" to see items you've already uploaded - if you don't see anything, and you did upload files, then you'll need to change the media folder location or else change where you placed the files via FTP.
9. Find the file you want to include in the particular new Content item, and add it..
10. Save your new content.

Now if you want to just have the files there without creating a content item for each one, then I think you can do that another way. You'll need the Media and Views modules, I beleive. This I've not tried myself, but it appears to be an option.

You'll create a new view, and instead of the type item to include being content, you'll select files or media... I forget which I saw. Then you'll proceed to build your view off of the files... I'd imagine you will need to specify a folder somewhere... and I'd suggest you specify a few filters. For one, on the file extensions.

Now doing it the 100% views way would take away some of the control you normally have with Content. If you have each file associated with a content item, then you can easily unpublish the content item at any time to not have it show in a view (assuming you keep the default filter of "=is published"). If you only use files, then you forego this extra projection. Being able to publish/unpublish items can be very handy in different situations. For instance, it's an easy way to quickly remove content from the visable website without having to make a definite decision: Do I definitely delete this, or will I want to show it again later? For instance, think of seasonal items. If it's something about snow, you can build it one winter, then when spring comes, you can unpublish it, and next year, you can edit and republish it without having to build from scratch.