Converting Documents to Web Pages

  using Microsoft Word 2000
by Paul Zarucki, Electronic Equipments Ltd., January 2006.


This tutorial shows you how to convert Word documents into web pages. If you have Word documents that you would like to turn into pages that can be easily viewed in a web browser and/or published on the Internet then this is for you.

You can follow the tutorial using one of your own documents or you can download the example document (right-click the link and choose Save Target As from the pop-up menu).
Software Used
The following software is used in this tutorial:
  • Microsoft Word 2000
  • Internet Explorer 5
  • Microsoft Windows 95
If your software or version is different some details might differ but the general principles will remain the same.

Converting the Document to a Web Page

Step 1 - open the document

Here is our example document open in Word.		 Example document in Word


Step 2 - choose File -> Save As Web Page


 Saving the document as a web page


Step 3 - Save As dialogue

The Save As dialogue lets you choose where to save the file and change the file name. By default the file name will be the same as the original document but ending in ".htm" instead of ".doc" to signify that it is a web page.

In the example shown here, the file will be called "bluebell.htm" and will be saved in the folder called "word2000". It will make life easier later on if you use lower case file names without blank spaces (hyphens and underscores are ok).

Click the Save button to save the file.
 Save As dialogue box

Previewing the Web Page

Step 1 - choose File -> Web Page Preview

 Previewing the web page


Step 2 - preview the web page

The web page should open in the Internet Explorer showing you how the document will look when viewed with a web browser. Here is the example web page produced from the example document.

Although the content should be identical to the original document, there will be some differences in layout which vary with the version of web browser being used, screen size, available fonts, and so on. Since these factors vary from one computer to another, you can't control every detail of how the document will be laid out in the web browser's window and it is wise to design your documents so that precise details of the layout and fonts don't matter. Bear in mind that if a font you have used is not available on the computer being used to view the web page the browser will substitute another font in its place.

 A preview of the web page

Files Created

When I saved the document as a web page, several new files and one folder were created:

blubell.htm - an HTML document. This holds the text and layout information for the web page.
bluebell_files - a folder containing the following files:
filelist.xlm - an XML document containing further information about the web page.
image001.jpg - a JPEG image file containing the graphic used on the web page.

Unlike a Word ".doc" file, which is a complete self-contained document, a web page is split between several files containing different components of the page. When copying the web page to a disc or uploading it to a server, we need the file bluebell.htm together with the folder bluebell_files and its contents.

Using the Windows Explorer file manager (not to be confused with the Internet Explorer) we can see the details of the files created in the tutorial. In the screenshot below, the folder word2000 contains the original Word document (bluebell.doc) along with the HTML document bluebell.htm and the folder bluebell_files. I have set my Windows Explorer to show the complete details of the files (View -> Options).

Windows Explorer showing the contents of the word2000 folder

The next screenshot shows the contents of the folder bluebell_files.

Windows Explorer showing the contents of the bluebell_files folder


Last revised 2006.01.20
Feedback and comments to paul atelectronic-equipments.co.uk are welcome.

Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation.