Saving a Microsoft Word document as a Web page

Although you can deliver Word documents on the Web in their original word-processor format, there are many ways in which a Web page works better for delivering content on the Web:

Screen readers can take full advantage of accessibility features.
Students can search the pages in WebCT content modules.
Pages will appear in the browser more quickly.
No extra application is needed because a Web page is the native document for a Web browser.
A link to a Web page will simply open that new page in the browser without confusing users. When you click a link to a Word document, the results will depend on what browser or computer you use. It might open the page in a browser window, open it in Word, or simply download the file without opening it.

Before you save: Check your title

If you don’t give your page a title, Word will make one for you based on the first line of text in your document. When you add a page to a content module in WebCT, the page's title becomes the link on that module's Contents page. If you launch the document as a single page in a new window, the page's title displays in the top bar of the browser window.

The title of the Web page pictured is “Jeff’s Home Page.”

To create or change a page title...

Pull down the “File” menu and choose “Properties.”
With the “Summary” tab selected in the “Properties” dialog box, you will see the box labeled “title,” where you can add or change the title.

File naming rules

Avoid special characters, punctuation, spaces

Stick with letters and numbers. Don’t use characters like /, &, * or % in your file names. Underscores are OK, but otherwise avoid any punctuation, except for the dot before the extension. It’s also best to avoid spaces in your file names. You can use an underscore to simulate a space, though: avoid_spaces.htm

Characters to avoid in file names

: ~ [ ] ! @ # $ % ^ & * ( ) + ` { } | \ < > , ? / ; ' "

File names are case sensitive

WebCT, like many Web servers, treats “Page.htm” and “page.htm” as different files. So choose a naming convention and stick with it—all lowercase letters, for example.

Include the file extension

The name of every Web page must end in “.htm” or “.html”. Though Windows automatically adds the extension, Macintosh users may need to remember to put the extension on the end of a file name. Unfortunately, both Windows and Mac OS X hide file extensions by default so it may be hard to tell if the extensions are there or not unless you change your view options.

Save a page that's "filtered" or has "only display information"

To save a Word document as a Web page...

Pull down Word’s “File” menu and choose “Save as Web Page.”
Select where you want to save the Web page. (Mac users: Be sure to include the extension on the end of the file name—either “.htm” or “.html” will do.)
If you’re using Office XP for Windows, choose a file type called “Web Page, Filtered” before you save the file. On a Mac, select the option to ”Save only display information.”
Save the file.

Choosing "Web Page, Filtered" or ”Save only display information” removes excess code that can make screen readers fail and that may make the page display strangely in some browsers. It also cuts the file size by a third, which will make your page load faster.

Look for image folders

When you make a Web page of a word Word document that has images on the page, Word creates a separate file for each image and stashes them in a folder. That folder will be in the same location to which you save the Web page and will have the same name as the Web page except that instead of the “.htm” extension the folder name will end in “_files”. So if you save a document as “page.htm” its image folder will be named “page_files”. You will need to upload both the file “page.html” and the folder “page_files” into WebCT. Put them both in the same folder within WebCT.