SAVING YOUR WORD DOCUMENTS TO HTML  

If your syllabus (or any document you want loaded onto the Web) is already in Word format, open the document in Word. To convert to HTML, simply use the pull-down menus to do a
File . . . Save As HTML command to convert the document:

You should name your syllabus INDEX.HTM and save it to the proper directory on the DOM server (your I: drive), as explained in the document Steps for Loading Your Syllabus onto the DOM Server. You will likely have to make a number of changes in formatting, as outlined in the Tips on Text Formatting section below.

If re-formatting an existing Word document as HTML proves more trouble than it's worth, you may wish to consider creating your syllabi from scratch as HTML documents first, and then convert them to Word documents afterwards.

To start a Word document as a blank HTML formatted document, click File . . . New . . ., and then click on the Web Pages tab:

Select the first option, Blank Web Page, to create everything from scratch. Select Web Page Wizard if you want step-by-step guidance with many graphic elements already in place.

There are several factors to consider when editing an HTML document. Not all of the elements from regular text editing in Word will necessarily translate into HTML. Below are some factors to consider.
 

You may notice a change in the formatting toolbar at the top of the screen. The conventional font size pull-down menu has been replaced by increase font size/decrease font size icons to the right on the font name:

If you don't see this toolbar, click the View pull-down menu, then choose Toolbars . . . , and then Formatting. There is also a special Web formatting toolbar accessible by clicking View, then Toolbars . . . Web.

In addition to clicking on the increase font size/decrease font size icons, you may want to take advantage of the Style pull-down menus (on the far left, labeled Normal in the above screen shot). These insert various HTML headings with pre-determined font sizes into your document.

Be aware that font sizes your users see will often depend on settings in their browsers. Users can easily change the default font and font size within their Web browsers. It's probably more important to get the text where you want it on the page than it is dealing with different types and styles of fonts--particularly for text-oriented documents such as syllabi.

Because hyperlinks on the Web are underlined, it is best to use italicized type or bold face type when citing the titles of books or journals rather than underlining them.

To change the appearance of your page, you may want to change the color of your font or of the page's background color. Both options are available under the Format pull-down menu:
 

The Text Colors choice will change the color of your text, while the Background option will enable you to select a color for the background of the document. You can import a different background (such as PAPER.GIF used on our templates for syllabi) by selecting the Background option, then Fill Effects, then Other Texture.

The best way to ensure that your text will stay formatted a certain way (in columns, with white space, etc.) is to place the text within a table. It has been found through experience that common syllabus elements such as reading lists or course calendars are best placed within tables. Although the latest versions of Web browsers are now recognizing additional word processing formatting (such as tabs), such features are not standard and will often still fail to look right if the user adjusts font size in his/her Web browser.

To create a table, click on the Insert Table icon in the standard toolbar:

Or, click the Table pull-down menu, then Insert Table. You can choose whether or not to show table borders by clicking anywhere within the table, then clicking on the Table pull-down menu, then Borders.
 

When using any sort of numbered list, it is better to use Word's numbered list feature rather than number lines yourself. Numbering the lines yourself can present conversion problems when your document is converted to HTML, particularly with tabs after the numbers.

To start a numbered list, click the Format pull-down menu, then Bullets and Numbering:

From the next box, click the Numbering tab and click in the appropriate box:

An easier method is just to click the Numbering icon in the formatting toolbar. You can also select Bullets instead using the icon just to the right of it: When you are finished with your numbered (or bulletted) list, just hit the ENTER key twice.  

Inserting a line break--though not always recommended because of varying screen/font sizes among users--is another way to ensure your text stays formatted. This is different from starting a new paragraph. Hitting the <ENTER> key in HTML formatting ensures that another paragraph is started, though there will be blank space between the two paragraphs. On the other hand, forcing a line break causes the text to separate, but without the blank line that characterizes a paragraph break in HTML. To insert a line break while editing, simply press:

<Shift>-<ENTER>.

This may come in handy while in a table cell to ensure a clean line break:
 
 

The primary advantage to having your syllabus on the Web is that your can direct your students to other Web resources using hyperlinks on the syllabus. To create a hyperlink on your page, highlight the text you want hyperlinked (such as the name of the Web site), and do either of the following:
 

Either option will bring you to the next dialog box, where you can specify the exact URL on the Web or another HTML document in your directory (top option), or another location on your Web page (bottom option). In the latter case, it is particularly important the Use relative path for hyperlink box is enabled:

If the hyperlink you are creating is to an email address rather than a Web page, use the prefix mailto: and then the email address. Clicking on this hyperlink will automatically invoke the user's email program (if there is one) within the Web browser:

Internal hyperlinks will navigate your users from one spot on your page to another without having to scroll through the entire document. These are handy if you have your syllabus divided into several sections (readings, calendar, class assignments, etc.). These internal hyperlinks are also sometimes called targets or, in the case of Word, bookmarks (not to be confused with the bookmarks you have in Web browsers such as Netscape Navigator).

To create an internal hyperlink, first click on a place in the document you would like to establish as a bookmark (such as the heading for COURSE CALENDAR or REQUIRED READINGS). Then, click on the Insert pull-down menu, then Bookmark:

You then get a box prompting you for a name for your bookmark. You may type whatever name seems appropriate:

The final step is creating a hyperlink somewhere on your document to this bookmark. You may, for example, have a listing on sections on your syllabus at the very beginning. Each list item can be a hyperlink to that section of the syllabus. This hyperlink is created the same way a regular hyperlink is created (Insert . . . Hyperlink . . .). For example, you could highlight COURSE CALENDAR at the beginning of your syllabus, then click the Insert Hyperlink icon (as explained in the previous section). This time, however, you should fill in the section of the box labeled Named location in file. If you can't remember what you named your bookmarks, you can always click the Browse button, which will give you a list of existing bookmarks in the document:

Web sites change their addresses from time to time. Even if the name of a Web site remains the same, you may discover that the address has not. To change the hyperlink address of something on your Web page, right-click the hyperlink, then choose Hyperlink . . . Edit Hyperlink:

A similar box to the Insert Hyperlink box appears where you can change the address.
 

Some features you may have gotten used to in Word are lost in the conversion to HTML. For a complete listing, go to the Help pull-down menu, then Contents and Index. Click the Contents tab, double-click on Creating and Working with Web Pages, then double-click on the topic Working with Web pages and Web authoring tools, and finally on the topic Learn what happens when you save a Word97 document as a Web page:

If you used any Office97 clipart, the graphics will be converted automatically, but you may have to place the graphics within tables to retain their placement on your page. Any drawn objects (text boxes, shapes) will not be converted. Text boxes will have to be changed to tables.

Any reference you make to page numbers on your syllabus should be eliminated. Remember that a Web page has no page numbers! Consider using bookmarks within the document (see section above on Creating Hyperlinks Between Locations Within Your Document), or creating a separate page under a different file name (such as CALENDAR.HTM) and creating a hyperlink to that page from your main syllabus page (INDEX.HTM).
 

Once you've completed editing your syllabus, check it in a Web browser to ensure it will look the same as you think it will. Even with Word's ability to convert and save in HTML, not everything will look the same on the Web as it does in Word. The easiest way to get a "sneak preview" of your Web page is to click on the File pull-down menu, then select Web Page Preview. Another way to do this is simply by clicking the following icon in the standard toolbar:

Either method will invoke whatever Web browser you have in your system with your document automatically loaded.

Another method to preview your page in a Web browser is by opening the browser and selecting the File pull-down menu, then Open Page, then Choose File (in Netscape Navigator), or File, Open, then Browse (in Internet Explorer).

Sometimes, even the best preparation results in a document that still looks nothing like you intended when you start previewing it in a Web browser. If this happens (and the more complex the original document, the more likely it will), don't worry. Although Word does a tolerable job converting documents to HTML, it is not a true HTML editor. Give Information Services a call, and we can take a look at it to see what may have gone wrong in the conversion process.
 

Once you have completed your syllabus (or any other document), you can load them into the appropriate directories on the DOM server (usually your I: drive). Consult Steps for Loading Your Syllabus onto the DOM Server, prepared by Information Services, for additional information on this topic.

If you have any questions about converting your Word documents to HTML, feel free to contact Ken Black at ext. 6512 or any member of the Information Services team.

Prepared by Ken Black, Information Services December 1998