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Don't use Word to create web pages!

Using Word, or any word-processor, to create web pages is just plain evil. Sure, it's possible, but like using spaces in filenames, it will eventually get you into trouble. Here are a few of the things that cause problems:

• Word document format: The default format used by Word cannot be understood by most web browsers. You must always remember to save your web pages in (ASCII) text format.
• Word-wrapping: When Word wraps text at the end of a line, it can cause you to loose track of your position in the tag structure. This generally is not a problem for the web browser; it just makes writing HTML more difficult.
• Automatic translation: If you accidentally choose the "save as web page" option, Word will translate all of your tags so the web browser ignores them. See the example on the main web page creation page.
• Lure of the features: Word has so many buttons and menus. It can be hard to resist using them. If you make something italic, or insert a picture, using Word's built-in features, this will not get translated into HTML, and will not show up on the finished page.
• Rotten HTML generation: Word was not built to edit HTML. If you do manage to force it to write HTML, it will be very poorly structured, and nearly impossible to edit.

There is one situation where Word can be useful to generate web pages: If you have a document that was originally created in Word, and you need to publish the document on the web. In this case, it is appropriate to use the "save as web page" option. This will translate the document into HTML, and the document on the web will look very similar to the way it appears in Word. However, use this option only as a last resort. It is usually best to keep the document in Word format, and simply provide a link to this document from your web page. This way, people can see and print your document in its original form.