Accessing uploaded pdfs to make links in pages

I’m developing my first WP site, which is more of a site than a blog, using Weaver II. I’d appreciate some advice.

When I was setting up my environment I looked for a replacement for the standard editor. The reason was that my site is a conversion of an existing site created and maintained with Microsoft FrontPage and it contains scores of static PDF files. These are currently stored in a fairly strict hierarchy in a folder structure and I wanted to maintain that (otherwise I’d never find anything). Just uploading them all as ‘media’ files would not, as far as I can make out, maintain that hierarchy (prepares to be shot down in flames though).

I need to set up my shiny new site’s pages with links to these files (some have none, some have many), and the standard editor’s way of making a link to a location that is not just a page or a post is for me to key in the full url, without the opportunity for browsing the server files to locate it. Which I won’t really know easily and keying in urls one at a time like that would get very tedious.

Then Bingo! I found the “Dean’s FCKEditor” plugin (V2.2), which gives access to all the subfolders under wp-content/uploads when setting up a link on a page via a ‘browse server’ button in its create/edit link screen. I consequently FTP’d a whole load of my PDFs to subfolders in wp-content/uploads/file/ftps/ where I could store them all in their original folder structure and I was a happy bunny.

Until I discovered two things: One, this editor has a bit of a bug in it. ‘Undo’ don’t work. Well it does sometimes and at others it can screw up all my carefully crafted html. Not that I’m a code-freak, far from it, but I’m learning rudiments and I know that sometimes I just have to get my hands dirty in the ‘Source’ window especially as I’m copying & pasting pages from my old site with FP’s crummy code. (Supplementary – is there any way of cleaning that up?)

The other problem is that it looks like this editor is no longer supported. The author’s website doesn’t work. Hardly future-proofed, then.

So, finally, I come to the question (thanks for hanging in there): Are there any other editor plugins available which will allow a search of the server to find files to link to in a page? I’ve tried out a few of what appear to be the more popular ones, but none of them seem to give this facility. They all require the user to key in the full url. No good for me I’m afraid.

That’s what I would ideally like to be able to do, but I’m fully aware of my limitations and I’m sure all the experts and gurus out there will be wincing at this and will want to tell me to do this another way. OK, I’m listening. I don’t have a deadline. If I have to dismantle a lot of what I’ve done in the interests of ‘doing it right’, which might well be better in the long run, then so be it. One thing I will not do though, is key in whole urls.

Sorry to be so long-winded, but I wanted to try to explain the situation in sufficient detail initially in the hope that it can be easily understood. If not, please ask for any clarification you need.

Can anyone help out a poor WP beginner? I’m sure someone will ask to see my site but I’m afraid it’s not yet ready for public consumption.

Bill