Converting Word format to HTML

How can you do it effectively?

[New_Alex]

Every time I try to convert a word document (Microsoft Word) into HTML and use it in Front Page it really mixes the drawings to weird things.

I can't even import a "word" file in Front page properly. It doesn't work at all.

Please tell me.

What is the best way to convert word documents in HTML format without mixing everything up?

Thanks
Alex

[bill]

Try using something like HTML TIDY [w3.org] to clean up the mess that Word makes...then bring that into FrontPage.

[mivox]

Honestly, the most effective method I've found its to create an HTML template in my HTML editor, and then copy and paste the text out of the word doc into the html editor. If the images are in web-friendly formats like GIF and JPEG,, youshould be able to just drop those into place.

I've used HTML Tidy before though, and it would probably do quite a good job of cleaning up Word-generated HTML junk.

[New_Alex]

Thanks for your reply.
I will try HTML tidy when I find the time.

The problem is that I have a lot of documents with word based drawings inside, like lines, boxes and arrows which they get distorted and out of place when i save or export from word as HTML (web page).

It is really painful because the only other solution is to publish my documents as .PDF which will give very big and slow to download files.

Alex

[txbakers]

if you must use a visual editor, use Dreamweaver.

Word is the absolute WORST at rendering HTML.

Although the early attempts by Pagemaker were horrific as well.

[pshea]

New_Alex, I have to say my heart is bleeding for you here. W ord does a bad of job of creating images (graphics, charts) that carry over virtually anywhere else. W ord also does a bad job of acting like poof! you can make this document HTML compatible. It's stuff (images, graphics, charts) is not even cleanly translatable within its own programs.

The W ord feature of Convert to HTML is so bad as to be unusable. It's pie in the sky.

There is a place which concentrates on all things W ord which may be helpful and I hope you guys don't think I'm dropping: here [wopr.com]

[WebGuerrilla]

New_Alex,

There is an easier way!

Download an install the html filter from

[office.microsoft.com...]

When you have the doc loaded in word, save a copy as html. That copy will have all the nasty MS code embedded in it so that it can be used by all MS aps. Once you've saved it as html, just select it and click a but and it will sreip everything out and leave you with just good ol plain jane html.

[Marcia]

WG is absolutely right. I have some recipe pages that were done in Word97 that I saved as HTML and they're not bad at all, they look fine. I then used it as a template. If there are graphics that are too complex to work, then it'll take some other software anyhow.

[hickoryhead]

txbakers mentioned Dreamweaver. It is probably the best WYSIWYG editor. Thought I'd mention Dreamweaver also has a "Clean Up Word HTML" feature. (I'm not plugging Dreamweaver; I tried it out but didn't buy it, because I'm used to text editors--Notepad, then EditPad.)
textism.com has a couple of webbased utilities for Word HTML cleanup also but I haven't tried them.
I used to love playing with making pages in Word 2000, but I soon found layouts get all out of whack when viewed in IE (and are pretty much unviewable in some Netscape versions.)
Excuse such a longwinded post. (Edited to say, I've tried out the Word HTML Filter but I may not have configured it right; it still leaves a lot of P CLASS="MsoNormal" rather than changing them to a simple P...)

[tedster]

If I understand correctly, you are finding a special challenge with Word drawings -- boxes, arrows, etc.

If you have an image editor available, you can take a screenshot of your Word drawing. Then crop it to the size you need and place that image in your HTML. Usually a gif with very few colors will work for those line drawings, boxes, arrows etc. -- and give you a relatively small file size.

[New_Alex]

Thanks to everybody here. AT least now I know where I' m going to.

The worst thing is when you try to import word or other html based documents into Front page. It is almost imposible.

I will try all those applications that you recommended. If they don't work I guess I have to do it manually as tedster suggested.

Your advices are really useful to me at this point. I will keep checking here to see your replies and try to drop answers to your threads (when I know something) given that I' m at a learning process compare to some of you here.

Again thanks
Alex