Converting Word Documents To HTML For WebCT

All text documents must be converted to .html format before they can be viewed in WebCT. Follow either of these easy ways to convert your documents:

Inserting your text file into FrontPage (Preferred)

If you have a document that was created in a word processor, like Microsoft Word, you can quickly and easily convert it to html within FrontPage. Using this method is preferred because FrontPage does a better job of rewriting the document for display on the web without some of the excess code that Word uses. To convert your file in FrontPage:

Open MS FrontPage
Open a new Page
Select File - New - Page or Web ... from the menu bar
You should see a blank white page on the right side of the FrontPage window
Select Insert - File... from the menu bar. Select your file from the list and click on the Open button. You should now see the contents of your file displayed on the page.
Select File - Save As... and name your file with a meaningful filename. (Note: you won't have to type in .htm as FrontPage will automatically add it.)

Before clicking on the Save button, select the Change... button and type in a descriptive title for your page. This will be the title that shows up in the top bar of the browser window and will also be the bookmark name if a student saves your page in his/her Favorites list.

When you are done, click on the OK button, then the Save button. Make note of where you are saving the file.

Scroll down through your file to make sure everything looks the way you want. If you used tabs and space bar characters in your original document you may find that things are no longer aligned the way you originally formatted them. This is because spaces and tabs are not recognized in the html language. To re-position your text (and/or graphics) it is best to use tables. Remember to re-save your page if you’ve made any changes.

Your file is now ready to be uploaded to WebCT.

Converting text within MS Word

You also have the option to save an existing Word document as a web page within Word. Use either Word 2000, Word 2002 (XP) or Word 2003 for best results. This will convert your document to html format, however the problem in the past has been that Microsoft Word-specific code is added to the html often causing unsatisfactory results and much larger file sizes than necessary. If you wish to convert your files this way, then follow these steps:

Open your original .doc file in Word 2007
Go to File - Save As Web Page...
Type in a distinctive file name (Word will automatically add the .htm extension to your file so you don't have to type it in)
Select the Change Title button and type in a distinctive title
Click the Save button (make sure you note where you are saving the file.)
Scroll down through your file to make sure everything looks the way you want. If you used tabs and space bar characters in your original document you may find that things are no longer aligned the way you originally formatted them. This is because spaces and tabs are not recognized in the html language. To re-position your text (and/or graphics) it is best to use tables. Remember to re-save your document if you’ve made any changes.

Your document is now ready to upload to WebCT.

Note: Make sure that you choose the html version of your file when you upload to WebCT.