Microsoft Word Web App lets you make basic edits and formatting changes to your document in a web browser. For more advanced features, use Word Web App’s Open in Word command. When you save the document in Word, it is saved on the website where you opened it in the web app. In short, I find this free version of Word fairly impressive. The first thing you have to keep in mind is that Word Online is free and because of this, there are a number of limitations imposed by Microsoft compared to the typical desktop installation of MS Word that most people are familiar with.

Microsoft Word is normally used to create documents such as memos, letters, or reports. However, you can also use Word to create Web pages. A special template, Web Pages, contains the formatting necessary to get you well on your way to completing a Web page. To create a Web page in Word, you simply design the page as a document, using a Web page template if you like, and then save the document as an HTML document. When you save an HTML document, a folder is saved along with it. The folder, containing images and information relevant to the formatting of the Web page, is placed on the same disk and in the same folder location as the HTML document.

Creating a Home Page

A home page is the first page that visitors will see when they access your Web site. In many cases, the home page is the entire Web site, but you have the option of including other pages that can be linked to the home page. To create a home page using Word, you will probably want to use either a Web page template or the Web Page Wizard. Both items are available when you select the Web Page option from the General Templates area.

To create a home page:

1. Open Word (Click Start, All Programs, Microsoft Word).
2. Click File, New. In the New Document task pane, click General Templates. Click the Web Pages tab, as shown in Figure C.1.
   Figure C.1
   A Web Page template provides assistance with developing a Web page.
   
3. Choose a Web page style or let the Web Page Wizard guide you through the steps of creating a Web page. The page shown in Figure C.2 was based on the Left Aligned Column style.
   Figure C.2
   This Web page was developed using Word’s Left Aligned Column style.
   
4. A Web page structure appears, in which you can click and drag to select a section to change, and then type text to replace the selection. Change the heading, and replace existing text with your own. Delete any existing text that you no longer need as a placeholder.
5. Change the attributes of any text. You can change text’s font size, type, or color, and apply any attributes, such as boldface, italics, or underline.
6. To add a background color, click Format, Background and choose a color. If you want to include a fill effect instead of a solid-color background, click Format Background, Fill Effects.
7. Periodically save the page as a Web page. Click File, Save As. Click Web Page, give the page a name, indicate the location (disk and folder) where the file should be saved, and click Save. A Web page filename cannot contain spaces (2004Reunion is OK; 2004 Reunion is not.)

Including Images
Seldom is a Web page entirely text. Most include images and even animation to make the page more appealing and eye-catching. You will most likely want to include one or more images on your page, as well. Web page images can be pictures from your digital camera; clip art that you collect from Word or from other sources, such as the Internet; or scanned pictures. If you are using a Word Web page template that includes an image, you will need to remove the image and replace it with one of your own, or leave the space empty.
To include an image on a Web page (using a Word Web page template):

1. Click the image to be removed or replaced, and press Delete.
2. If the image to be placed on the Web page is a picture, it should be saved as a JPEG file. The JPEG file format is best for displaying photographs, whereas the GIF format is more often used for line drawings, large blocks of color, and animation. If you have an image editor, you can open the image in that software and save it as a JPEG file. Your image editor might give you the option of saving a file as a Web-ready picture. When you choose the Web-ready option, the picture is automatically saved as a JPEG file in an appropriate size for display on a Web page. If you don’t have an image editor, you can open the picture in Paint (Click Start, All Programs, Accessories, Paint), and change the file type to JPEG, if necessary, before saving it. To change the file type, click File, Save As, and then select JPEG from the drop-down list beside the file type area.
3. To place the image on the Web page that you are developing, click where you want the picture to go, and click Insert, Picture, From File (or Insert, Picture, Clip Art if you are selecting from Word’s clip art inventory). Navigate to the disk and folder containing the picture to be inserted, and double-click the image file.
4. Resize the image by clicking to select it and then clicking and dragging a corner handle.
5. If you are using a Word Web page template, you will probably be able to type text beside and beneath the inserted image. If, for some reason, you are not able to type beside the image, you must format the image to allow that to occur. Right-click the image, and select Format Picture from the context menu. Click the Layout tab. Click Square. Click OK. At that point, you can type text beside and beneath the picture.

Linking Web Pages
The next time you are on the Internet, take a careful look at any Web page. More likely than not, you will be able to identify several graphic or text hyperlinks. You can tell that a picture or text is a link because the mouse pointer becomes an arrow or pointing hand when you move over the link. Links connect to other Web pages so that you can easily move among pages without typing new page addresses. When creating a Web page using Word, you can create links to other pages that you plan to create or to other pages already on the Internet.
To link pages (using Word):

1. Create as many pages as you want to include in your Web site. Each Web page is a Word file.
2. To link the Web pages that you have created, or to link to another Web page, you must include one or more hyperlinks on your home page.
3. On the home page, type text for a hyperlink. For example, if you want to include a link on your home page to the Reunions.com page, type some text, such as “For reunion recipe ideas, click here,” as shown in Figure C.4a. Then click and drag to select the link text, and click Insert, Hyperlink. At the dialog box, shown in Figure C.3, click Existing File or Web Page. Type the Web address of the Web page to link. Click OK.
   Figure C.3
   Using the Insert Hyperlink dialog box, you can link text in a Word document to a Web site, so that the text becomes a hyperlink.
   
4. If you are linking between two pages that you have created, type text to indicate the link, such as that shown in Figure C.4a. Then, create a hyperlink by selecting the text and clicking Insert, Hyperlink. Click Existing File or Web Page. Navigate to the disk and folder holding the page to be linked, and double-click the page file. The linked page is shown in Figure C.4b.
   Figure C.4
   
   1. Text linking to another Web page on your Web site
   2. Text linking to another Web Site
   
   Text on one page (a) can be used to link to another page (b).
   Previewing Your Web Pages
   It is common practice to design a Web page offline, which means that you can spend as much time as necessary perfecting its design before you actually place it on the Internet. If you are using Word to design the page, you will complete the document and save it as an HTML file. At that point, you will certainly want to check on how it will look when displayed online. However, you don’t need to be online to check its appearance. You can simply use your browser, even offline, to open and preview the Web page.
   To preview a Web page:
   
   1. Open your browser by double-clicking the icon on the desktop or by locating it on the Start, All Programs menu. Click File, Open, as shown in Figure C.5.
      Figure C.5
      Open your Web page file in your browser to preview it.
      
   2. Click Browse, and navigate to the disk and folder in which your home page is stored (Figure C.6). Click OK.
      ure C.6
      You must indicate where the home page file is stored.
      
   3. The page will be displayed exactly as it would look on the Internet. Click to test any hyperlink. Click Back to return to the home page from a linked page.
   4. Close your browser.
      

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How to Create a Website Using Microsoft Word / Office

by Christopher Heng, thesitewizard.com

I was recently asked by one of my visitors whether it was possible to use Microsoft Word (or Microsoft Office) to createa website. This article answers that question and also provides some practical information on how to create basic web pageswith Word/Office.

Can You Use a Wordprocessor to Create a Web Page?

The answer to that question is basically the same as what you get when you ask 'is it possible to use a pair of pliers to remove a screw?'.

That is to say, of course you can, but it's not really the best tool for the job. Just as a screwdriver can remove the screw more efficiently and easily,likewise a specialized program like a web editor can makethe creation of your website much easier than using a wordprocessor. In fact, there are things that you may want to do with your website thatis not easily accomplished, and perhaps not even possible to achieve, using Microsoft Word or any of thefree wordprocessors.

Different Mediums

Wordprocessors are primarily meant for creating documents that will ultimately be printed out. As such, their features are optimized for thatpurpose. They have the ability to set the margin on your pages in inches or centimetres ('centimeters' inUS English),the ability to set your page to either the A4 size or some other standard paper size, and so on.

Web pages are a completely different medium. They exist to be read on the screen and not on paper. Inches and centimetres are not really usefulfor use on a monitor; here, pixels reign. There is also no universal fixed monitor size, and even if there were, users can freely resize their browserwindows to whatever sizes they want. More importantly, websites have interactive features, such as menu buttons that change colour when themouse hovers over it, or forms that can be submitted, layout and content that can change when certain actions are taken, etc.

If you were to design your web page using a wordprocessor, you will be unnecessarily restricting yourself to the subset of features thatprinted pages have in common with web pages.

But it's not impossible. If you're adamant about using Word to create a web page, carry on reading the rest of this article. On the otherhand, if you don't mind using a web editor, the following articles will give you a head start. Information about how to get the relevantweb editors can be found in those articles.

• How to Start/Create Your Own Website— this is a must-read if you're starting out on a website.

• How to Design a Website with Microsoft Expression Web— for people who want to use the free Microsoft Expression Web editor.

• How to Design a Website with Dreamweaver— for people who want to use the Dreamweaver editor.

• BlueGriffon Tutorial: How to Design a Website with BlueGriffon— for those who want to use the open source BlueGriffon editor.

What You Can Do with a WordProcessor

Microsoft Word has rudimentary facilities to make it slightly easier for you to put an existing document onto your website.

1. It can convert your document into a web page so that it can be displayed like a normal web page in a browser.

2. You can create links that point to other websites or other pages on your own website. This can be done either automaticallyby Word when you type a web address (like 'http://www.example.com/') or manually.

Microsoft Word Web

My guess is that the facilities are primarily meant for people with existing documents which they want to place on the Internet,and not really meant for someone who wants to create and maintain an entire website from scratch.

What You Lose When You Use a WordProcessor to Create/Maintain a Website

So that you don't have an unrealistic expectation of what you can accomplish using Word for your website, let me mentionsome of the things you will lose out. Note that this doesn't mean that you can't use Word. You just won't be able to usethose facilities.

Microsoft Word Websites

1. You will lose the ability to embed code supplied by other websites into your web page. Some sites, including thesitewizard.com, providespecial facilities which you can add to your website to extend it in some way. Such facilities are often provided in the formof code known as either HTML code, CSS code, JavaScript or some other thing. For example, there are numerousfree web statistics services thatyou can use so that you can find out how many visitors are using your website and so on. Such services typically require you toinsert some type of code into your web page. It doesn't seem to be possible to insert such code using Word.

2. Consequently, you will also lose the ability to create interactive features such as aputting a feedback / contact form on your site,inserting navigation menu buttons that worklike what you see in the left hand column of thesitewizard.com, and so on.

3. You will not be able to easily publish your document to your website from within your wordprocessor. WhileOffice 2007 (and perhaps 2010 too) appears to have some ability to integrate with some blog providers, it doesn't seem tohave an integrated facility to publish ordinary web pages via FTP. For those wondering what 'FTP' is, in layman's language,it's basically the method used to transfer web pages from your computer to the Internet.But don't worry. It's still possible to publish your document. You'll just have to use a separate program, called anFTP client, to do it.

4. Word also does not provide an easy way for you to update and change the design of all the pages on your website should you decideto change it in the future. If you have many pages on your website, and you decide that you want to change the design, you will haveto manually change them on every page yourself.

   To be fair though, only commercial web editors likeDreamweaverhave this facility. At the time I write this, the freeKompoZer web editordoes not do this either. But it's a handy feature, especially if you have many pages on your site.

How to Create a Web Page Using Word 2003 and Word 2007 / 2010

To create a web page using Microsoft Word, just type your document as you normally would. (Sorry, this is not a Word tutorial, so I'm not going toteach you how to type a document. I'm assuming that if you are asking this question, you already know how to use Word, and just want to know ifyou can use it to make a web page.)

To create links to other web pages, do the following. If you use Word 2003, just skip to the Word 2003 section. If you use Word 2007 or 2010,just read that section. The 2 sections are written to be independent of each other.

• How to Create a Link in Word 2007 (ie, from Microsoft Office 2007) and Word 2010 (from Office 2010)

  Let's assume that you have some text that you want to make into a link, for example, you want to link to this article using the text'How to Create a Web Page UsingOffice 2003 / 2007'. Type the text you want into your document in the usual way, and select it. Click the 'Insert'tab at the top of the Word window. A new set of buttons will appear below 'Insert'. Click the 'Hyperlink' button.

  A dialog box labelled 'Insert Hyperlink' will appear. Type the web address into the 'Address' field. For example, the web addressof this article is 'https://www.thesitewizard.com/faqs/create-website-with-microsoft-word-office.shtml' (without the quotes).Click the 'OK' button.

  The text you selected should now appear as a blue underlined link in your document.

• How to Create a Link in Word 2003 (ie, from Microsoft Office 2003)

  To make some piece of text into a link, select the text in your document in the usual way. For example, let's say you want to make'Is it Possible to UseMicrosoft Word or Office to Create a Website?' into a link. Drag your mouse over those words or use the Shift key together withthe arrow keys to select them. Then click the 'Insert' menu, followed by the 'Hyperlink' item that appears in that menu.

  A dialog box entitled 'Insert Hyperlink' should appear. Type the web address you want into the 'Address' field. For example,the address of this article is 'https://www.thesitewizard.com/faqs/create-website-with-microsoft-word-office.shtml' (without thequotes). Click the 'OK' button.

  If you have done it correctly, the text you selected should now be underlined and appear in blue, the way many links on the web do.

How to Save Your Document as an HTML File in Office 2003, Office 2007 and Office 2010

Apart from inserting hyperlinks, the other thing you'll need to know is how to convert the document from its default '.doc' or '.docx'file format to an HTML file. To do this, if you are using Word 2003 or 2010, click the 'File' menu. If you are using Word 2007, clickthe nameless round button at the top left of the Word window. Then, whether you're using Word 2003, 2007 or 2010, click the'Save As' item in the menu that appears.

Once the 'Save As' dialog box appears, type the name of the file you want to save as in the 'File name' box. For example, if you aremaking the main page of your website, you should call the page 'index' (without the quotes). Then click the 'Save as type' drop down boxto expand it.

There are two possible options that you can use to create HTML files (ie, web page files). Select either the'Web Page (*.htm; *.html)' option or the 'Web Page, Filtered (*.htm; *.html)' option.

The 'Web Page, Filtered' option creates smaller and more standard web pages that contain only the formatting code understood by web browsers and search engines.The 'Web Page' option creates HTML pages with additional hidden Word formatting code. This additional code is (hopefully)ignored by web browsers and search engines, but is used interally by Word when you open that same file again to edit it. If theadditional code is not present, when you reopen the file in Word, you may not be able to use some of Word's features on your documentin the usual way. (For example, some facilities may be disabled.)

In view of this, unless you know what you're doing, you probably should save it as 'Web Page'. Your page will not beconsidered as 100% valid HTML, butthen, since you're using a wordprocessor to create the page, it probably isn't going to be 100% valid anyway, whether or notyou use the 'Filtered' option. (It will probably also be more bloated than it needs to be.)

Once you've selected either the 'Web Page' or 'Web Page, Filtered' options, the dialog box will change, and a new 'Change Title...'button will appear. Click it. A dialog box, called 'Set Page Title', will appear.

This page title is the title of your web page that you see in the search engine listings of your website. It also appears in the top menubar of the browser window when you view your web page in a web browser. It is not displayed in your document, but is an important partof a web page.

Type an appropriate title for your web page here and click the 'OK' button.

Next, if you use Word 2007 or 2010, click the 'Tools' button at the bottom of the dialog box, and select 'Web Options'.In the 'Target Browsers' drop down box, select the 'Microsoft ® Internet Explorer ® 6 or later' line, andclick the 'OK' button. (It's probably already selected by default in Word 2010, but you may want to still want tocheck to make sure, just in case.)

Before you proceed, notice that Word has changed your filename to add '.htm' to the end of it. For example, if you typed'index', the file will now be called 'index.htm'. Change it so that the ending is '.html' instead of '.htm'. That is, if Word has changedit to 'index.htm', modify it so that it is now called 'index.html'.

Finally, click the 'Save' button in the 'Save As' dialog box.

Word saves your file along with an additional folder containing any embedded pictures you have in your document as wellas some other data. You will have to publish both your file and this additional folder (and its contents) to your website.

How to Publish Your Web Page

Since Word doesn't have a built-in facility to publish your web page, you will have to use a separate program to do this. As mentionedearlier, such a program is called an FTP client. Please see the articleHow to Upload a File to Your Website Using theFileZilla FTP Client for a step-by-step guide on how to use one such FTP client, Filezilla (which is free), to publish your web pageand its associated folder.

Note: this assumes that you have already signed up for a web host and all the other things associated with website publishing. Thisguide doesn't deal with those aspects. If you don't know what I'm talking about, or have not done any of those things, please readHow to Make/Create Your Own Website:The Beginner's A-Z Guide. Otherwise, when you read the Filezilla tutorial, you'll wonder what I'm talking about when I mention'web host'.

Conclusion

Publishing a website using Word or Office isn't really ideal. You have to make do with a lot of limitations.However, in a pinch, it is possible to create a rudimentary web page if you need to.

Copyright © 2009-2018 by Christopher Heng. All rights reserved.
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Microsoft Word Web Layout