Best practices for larger document and powerpoint files

We feature a number of downloadable presentation, pdf and other document files. In our regular html site, we simply create links that open a new tab that downloads the file (and then prompts the user to save or open). We have a folder on the site to which we upload these files.

We can do the same thing in WordPress, i.e., create links to files in this folder, but it would be nice to manage this from within WP. However, some of these files are fairly large, particularly some of the more graphic ppsx files.

The media library seems oriented towards images and doesn’t really seem set up to manage documents, i.e., size limitations on uploads (I know I can override that), no types that are applicable to these files, etc.

My question to you more experienced WP gurus is what is the best practice for handling this type of file. Should we continue to upload them to a directory and create direct links, or is there some other approach that is recommended?

Thanks!

Tom