How to share an HTML file with someone
Guides ·
You have an HTML file: a report, a chart export, a page an AI wrote. It looks right on your computer. Now someone else has to see it.
Why an attachment disappoints
Email or chat it as an attachment and the recipient has to download it and open it locally. Some mail clients block HTML attachments. If the page loads images, styles or scripts from neighbouring files, those are missing on their machine, and the page breaks. When you fix something, you send another file and hope everyone opens the newest one.
Why a cloud drive does not help
Google Drive stopped hosting web pages on 31 August 2016, and Dropbox shared links do not render HTML. Both will store the file and show it as a file. Neither opens it as a working page. The comparison with Drive and Dropbox has the sources.
Give it an address
A web page is meant to be opened from a URL. Publishing the file gives it one.
- Drop the file on Publidock. If the page uses other files, drop the whole folder or a zip; relative paths are kept, and
index.htmlis found for you. - Choose who can open it: anyone with the link, a password, your company, or named people.
- Preview it, then go live and send the link.
Free covers five sites with public links. Passwords start on Solo; company and named-people sharing are on Team. See pricing.
Things that commonly go wrong
- Absolute paths. A page that loads
C:\Users\...\chart.pngor/Users/...works only on your machine. Use paths relative to the HTML file. The missing assets guide shows how to find them. - Secrets in the page. Anything in the file can be read by anyone who can open it. Remove keys and private data before publishing.
- A server-side app. If the page needs a server to run, it is not a static file. Publidock serves files only.
When it changes
Publish the new file to the same site. The link you sent shows the latest version, earlier ones are kept, and comments stay with the version they were written on. Notebook or Quarto users can follow the Jupyter and Quarto guides.