Using Microsoft Word to write HTML files

The latest version of (Office97) includes an option to save a file in HTML format. You write the file as a regular Word document, and when you save it as HTML, Word automatically converts it and inserts the HTML code. This works in PowerPoint too.

To do this, you must have installed Office97 with a full Custom installation, specifying in the options that you wanted the ability to save files as HTML. If you (or whoever set up your machine) did a standard installation of Office97, you cannot save files as HTML. To add the option, you must re-install Office97 from the distribution CD.

Important: this page refers only to the Office97 version of Word! Previous versions of Word cannot save files in HTML format.

To save a file as HTML:

  1. Write it as usual. You can include text, tables, lines and clip-art.
  2. As a safety precaution, save it in regular Word format (with the file extension .doc).
  3. Choose "Save as HTML..." from the File menu. There is no icon or button, you have to use the menu command.
  4. Choose the directory you want to save the file in, and give it a name. The extension will automatically be .htm. Choose "Save".
  5. You may get a warning message that some formatting may not be savable as HTML and may be lost, and will be asked if you want to continue. Choose "Yes".

 

How well does it work?

Word is not really very good at saving files in HTML format. Before we had FrontPage Express v.2, we did what we could with it because there wasn't anything better (and why spend money for a separate WYSIWYG editor that doesn't do a much better job, if you have Word already?) Sometimes a lot of work has to be done to edit the file again after saving it as HTML. Also, non-Roman languages (such as Hebrew, Arabic, etc.) that are written from right to left could not be saved very successfully.

The new FrontPage Express is as easy to use as Word and does a much better job of saving HTML. In fact it's much simpler, since it doesn't have all the formatting options that cannot be saved as HTML. So if you want a WYSIWYG editor, there is no real reason to use Word any more.

 

 

The Word HTML toolbar

 

You can display a Web toolbar in Word. It looks like this:

To display it:

  1. Choose "Tools" from the menu.
  2. Choose "Customize" from the Tools menu, and then "Toolbars".
  3. You will be shown a list of toolbars. The ones that are checked actually appear in the Word window. Click the checkbox next to "Web" in the list, to display the Web toolbar.
  4. Click "OK".

Most of the icons on this toolbar are actually for browsing, not for writing Web pages. The following list explains what each icon does. Some of them will probably already be familiar to you from Internet Explorer. The first three, and the sixth in the list, also appear with the same meanings in FrontPage Express.

 

"Back" and "forward" arrows for browsing theWeb.
Stop loading the current page.
Refresh, i.e. reload the current page from the Web.
Return to your Home Page.
Search the Web for something.
Add a hypertext link. This is the only icon that is concerned with editing the page.
Show or hide the Web toolbar.
Displays the URL (Web or local file address) of the current file and includes a drop-down menu of the last files listed.
Show or hide the regular Word editing toolbar in addition to the Web toolbar.

 

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Written by J. Koren for Unesco
©1998