Once the necessary modules are installed, it is time to setup the content type for the documents. This is how we will add files to the download manager.
Go to Administer->Content Management->Content Types and choose "Add Content Type." Enter a name for the content type (for this tutorial, I will use "Downloads" for the name, and "downloads" for the type, but you can use anything.) If desired, enter a description for the type to assist you or other users in the future.
Expand the "Submission form settings" section, and change the body field label to something more intuitive, such as "Description of download." You might also fill in the submission guidelines if you are going to allow others to use this.
I typically don't want every download to be published on the front page, but that's just me. There's certainly nothing wrong with it, and in many cases, it is desireable. If you don't want the download to be promoted to the front page, uncheck the "Promoted to front page" checkbox under "Workflow settings."
Adjust the comment settings, if desired. I just leave them as default. When finished, save the content type.
Taxonomy allows us to categorize our content by specifying a number of tags, which can then be used to search for nodes. This is also how we group the files. Go to Administer->Content Management->Taxonomy. Select "Add Vocabulary" and fill in the fields (something like "Downloads" for the vocabulary name, enter a suitable description and help text to inform users what the tags are, and check the "Downloads" document type. For the settings, I would check "Tags," which allows the taxonomy terms to be created when the user submits the file. This could could lead to confusion if different users misspell the tags or use tags that don't fit, but it is an easy way to create the terminology. "Multiple select" allows each file to have multiple tags (this is already true if you selected "Tags" but go ahead and check it anyway.) Check "Required" if you want each file to be associated with at least one taxonomy term. Since this is how we will categorize the content, I recommend it.
If you want an image associated with the taxonomy terms, and have installed the Taxonomy Image module, go to Administer->Site Configuration->Taxonomy Image. Adjust the settings to your needs and tastes, but I'd recommend checking the "Add wrapper <div> tag" under Advanced. You may want to set the resizing constraints to keep images at a reasonable size (use the "not greater than" option.) You don't need to check the content type unless you want to use the image for every file. I leave it unchecked...
Select "Manage Fields" for the download content type we just created. Near the bottom, under the "New Field" section, enter "File Name" in the label box, and filename (field_filename) in the "Field Name" box. Select "File" for the field type, and "File Upload" for the widget type. Save the field.
You can now configure the file name field. In the "Help Text" box, enter a description, such as "Select a file to upload." If you want to restrict what file types may be uploaded, enter the appropriate extensions under "Permitted upload file extensions" or leave it blank to allow all files. Also, if you want to restrict the file sizes for upload, or total size of attachments per now, enter the values in the appropriate fields. You may also specify a location within Drupal's files directory for the download files. This isn't necessary, but I create a path for this type to help keep things organized.
Since a download manager isn't much use without downloads, check the "required" checkbox. You can specify how many files may be attached to the node, but since I am creating a download manager where each file has it's own node, I leave this at 1.
Make sure the default list value is "listed" and is "enforce default." Disable the description field. Save the settings.
If you want to have an image associated with each file (something like the screenshots used with files at http://www.sourceforge.net,) you need to add an image field similar to the file field added above. Enter "Preview Image" in the label, and "previewimage" in the field name. Select "Image" for both the type and form element, and save it. This will open the configuration page for the image field (or we can click the "configure" link.) Enter some help text to describe the field, and it would probably be a good idea to specify a maximum resolution (something like 100x100.) You might want to specify a file path for the images, and maybe change some of the other settings, but the defaults are alright.
Click the "Display Fields" link at the top. For the preview image, and set the teaser to "Image linked to node" and full node to "Image." Save.
You should now be back at the "Manage Fields" page, and the newly created "File Name" field will be listed with the default fields. You can reorder these to suit your tastes. I like to have the following order:
Once these settings are to your liking, click save.