Office 2008 for Macintosh: The Missing Manual

Creating a Web Page in Word

As mentioned before, most people who are serious about creating Web pages use programs like Dreamweaver or GoLive. But Word can convert any of its own documents into a Web page, ready to “hang” on the Internet. Make no mistake: Professional Web designers will sneer at your efforts, since Word fills the resulting behind-the-scenes HTML code with acres of unnecessary computer instructions that can make a Web page take longer to load into visitors’ browsers. Furthermore, they can also render your design layout imprecisely. But when you need to create only the occasional simple Web page, or when saving money and a short learning curve are more important to you than impressing professional Web designers, Word can suffice.

Designing a Site Map

Before you start working on your Web page in Word, it’s a good idea to have a plan of action. Take a blank piece of paper (really—paper and pencil work great for this!) or Word document, draw a box for each page of your Web site, and label them to figure out how many Web pages your site will have, and how they’ll be connected by navigational links. For instance, you might have a home page, an FAQ (frequently asked questions) page, a page of scanned photos, a long article on a page of its own, and a page with your contact information. Figure 9-1 shows an example sketch.

Figure 9-1. You’ll save yourself from temporary insanity ...