Converting Word Documents to the Web

Like many faculty members, you have probably created printed documents for your students using Microsoft Word. As you move your teaching resources to the Internet you are likely to want to convert many of them to web pages.

There are good reasons to consider making the web your primary document source, and moving away relying primarily upon documents created for print. Here are some considerations:

• Current versions of web-based materials are instantly available.
• Changes can be made quickly and instantly distributed on the web.
• Those who want hard-copies can print out web pages
• It is not necessary to maintain and synchronize web and print versions when materials are created and maintained on the web.

Trying to keep web-based and print-based documents in sync can be a major headache. There are three primary ways to solve this problem. We have prepared some basic guides for each of these methods:

• Converting Word documents to Manila pages. Convert and redesign your documents so that they can easily be managed on the web.
• Saving Word documents as web pages. Use Word's built-in ability to generate html versions of documents.
• Converting Word documents to pdf files. Create portable document format (or .pdf) version of your Word files using Adobe Acrobat. ( Mac OS X users can do this with the Preview application.)

Each options has its advantages and disadvantages. It is important to understand all three so that you can choose the method that is right for you.

Although continuing to rely on your familiar word-processing program may seem appealing at first, there are excellent reasons to move your materials straight into the Manila environment, and not rely on .pdf files or using Word to save as web pages.

We have prepared some guidelines that may help you make the best choice: Converting documents: choosing the best method