How to Save Microsoft Word Document as a Webpage?

Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing application for creating documents. By default, Word app will save the files as .docx extension. This is most compatible with other applications like Apple Pages and Google Docs. However, many do not know that it is easy to save the Microsoft Word document as a webpage in HTML format. In this article, we will explain the process along with the other aspects of using HTML webpages.

Converting Word Document to HTML Webpage

In our earlier article, we have explained how to publish Word documents in a live WordPress blog. However, converting to HTML webpage can help you in different ways.

• HTML pages can be opened with any browser apps like Edge or Chrome. Therefore, you can access the document on any computer by converting it to a HTML webpage.
• You can upload the converted HTML page on the live server to publish your content along with images without any other content management platforms.
• It is possible to add additional styles to your webpage and make them looks beautiful.

However, some Word fonts and styles may not be compatible when saving the document as a webpage. If you are fine with that, here is how to save your Word document as a webpage in HTML format.

Save Word Document as Webpage

First open the document you want to convert in Word app and go to “Files” menu. Select “Save as” option and click “Browse” under “Other locations”.

When the browse window is open, navigate and find the location on your computer to save the file. However, before clicking on the “Save” button, click on “Save as type” dropdown and select “Webpage” option.

It should look like below after the selection.

Now click on “Save” button and Word will immediately change the layout to Web Layout. You can click on the “Print Layout” icon showing on the status bar to make the view comfortable if you want.

Now open File Explorer and go to the location where you have saved the file. You will see a folder containing all images, thumbnails and color schemes required for the webpage along with the HTML file.

Double click on the HTML file to open it in Edge or with any of your favorite browser.

If you want to upload the webpage to a server or want to share with someone, always make sure to use both the folder and HTML file together. When saving as a webpage, you can change the title of the document. This title will be used as a title tag for the webpage and shown in the browser tab when you open the page. In addition, you can also save thumbnails of the document by selecting “Save  Thumbnail” option in the “Save As” window. This will create a .wmf file showing the preview of your document and store it in the folder that is generated with the webpage.

Save as Webpage Filtered

If you have noticed, there are two more options available for saving your Word document as a HTML webpage. The first option is to save the document as a filtered webpage. Though this will also save the file as HTML, it will remove some of the Word specific styles from your document. Word will show you the warning when you try to save the document as a filtered webpage.

The advantage of filtered webpage is that the size will be reduced around one third compared with normal webpage format.

Saving as Single Webpage

The last option is to save the Word document as a single webpage format. In this case, the document will be saved as a single webpage with .mht file extension. This is a HTML archive format which can hold all related files like text and images in a single file. You can open this with Edge or any other browser similar to HTML file. Though this will help to get a single webpage, the problem is that the file will be huge in size. When we tested the same document, the size was two times more than the normal webpage format and seven times more than the filtered webpage format.

In addition, sometimes we also noticed the images in the documents are not properly converted. Therefore, we recommend avoiding this format or check your webpage thoroughly for any missing items from original Word document.

Additional Options for Webpages

In the “Save As” dialog box, Word offers some hidden features to customize the webpages. When you are in the “Save As” dialog box, click on “Tools” button and select “Web Options…”. This will open a pop-up as shown below where you can navigate through different tabs and customize the settings.

For example, you can change the encoding, fonts and target browser’s screen size/pixels for the pictures. In most cases, you can leave all these options as per the default settings and save the Word document as webpage by selecting one of the above explained options.