Word as HTML Reader

According to legend, once upon a time a few people actually used Word as a Web browser. Earlier versions of Word had the ability to open Web pages; there was even a Web Toolbar with forward and back buttons and a Favorites menu. But there haven’t been any confirmed sightings of these individuals for years, and in Word 2008, Microsoft quietly deleted its Web-browsing abilities. Word’s ability to read documents written using the HTML Web-design language, however, is unaffected.

Opening Web Pages from Your Hard Drive

Documents written using the HTML Web-design language aren’t confined to the Internet anymore. Because they’re relatively small, include formatting, and open with equal ease on Macs, Windows PCs, and every other kind of computer; HTML documents are now a common exchange format for Read Me files, software user manuals, and the like. (You know when you have one because its file name ends with .htm or .html.)

Tip

When you open any kind of HTML document—like a Web page you’ve saved to your hard drive or a Word document you’ve saved as a Web page—in Word, it automatically opens in Web Layout view. If you can’t see images, background colors, or other Web features in your document, you’ve probably somehow gotten into the wrong view. Choose View → Web Layout.

Word can open such documents directly: Just launch Word and choose File → Open, make sure that you have All Documents selected in the Enable pop-up menu (if you don’t, Word won’t let you select and open HTML files), then navigate to the file on your Mac and click Open. The file opens into Word’s Web Layout view. Hyperlinks work, but otherwise the file acts more like a Word document than a Web page. For example:

  • Scrolling text (see Other text effects) doesn’t scroll.

  • Animated GIFs don’t work.

  • Movies designed to play automatically (and anything else requiring a Web-browser plug-in) don’t work.

  • Text flow and the positioning of images on your page will probably be different in Word than in a browser. Using a table for layout alignment (see Tables in Web page layout) results in more consistency between Word and browser views.

Viewing HTML Code for a Web Page

When you open an HTML document, Word does its best to show you the images and text of that document just as though you’re viewing it in a Web browser. In other words, you see the results of the HTML programming, not the HTML code itself.

If you’re comfortable working in the HTML language, however, Word is only too happy to show you the underlying code:

  1. Open the Web page in Word. Choose View → HTML Source.

    If that menu choice is grayed out, save the Web page document first. The Web page opens as a document full of HTML code. A tiny, one-button toolbar (Exit HTML Source) also opens.

  2. Edit the HTML in Word. Click Exit HTML Source when you’re finished.

    Word returns you to Web Layout view, which reflects the changes you just made.

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