Did you know you can create your own website using Microsoft Word? Doing so requires no knowledge of HTML or any special software of any kind.
You might want to use Word to design your website for a variety of reasons: you don’t want to pay an expensive web designer; even though there are a variety of templates online that can be used to design a webpage for little or not money, none of them is just what you want; you want to add a personal touch; or the website will be apersonal one or for a small business and it won’t be worth paying someone to design the website.You can design an attractive website using Microsoft Word, even though it does not have all thetools of special web design software.
The first thing to know is that to create a webpage all you need to do is to save any document as either a “Webpage” or as “HTML,” depending on how old your version of Word you use. The older versions require you to save it as “HTML.” Any document you save is then a webpage and could potentially be placed online as your own website. There is a lot more you can do to make a potential website look better using Word, however.
The extension at the end of whatever you name you webpage will automatically be .html. If you make it something else, the website won’t work. If you plan on placing your website online, it traditionally works best to name your homepage index.html. Don’t use spaces in naming your various pages on the website, as the page often won’t work if you do. For example, name a page information_page.html, not information page.html.
If you are going to link the homepage to another page you create, or vice versa, you need to create a hyperlink. You could type Link to Homepage. You could even then put that beneath a picture. Highlight your picture and text. There are various ways to create the hyperlink. The easiest may be to click on Insert, followed by hyperlink. If you can find the page you have created in the task pane, just click on it. If not, type in the name of the webpage you created and click “ok.”
One thing you might want to do when designing a website using Microsoft Word is to look at websites you like to get ideas as to why you find their sites attractive. Word provides a lot of features to make your website more attractive. If you click on Format, you will find Theme and Background. If you double click on one of the colors in background when creating a website with Microsoft Word, your webpage will become that color. If you view the various available themes you can see what design you can choose for your webpage and can give it that design by double clicking on the design you choose. At any time you can see what your website would look like by clicking on file then “Web Page Preview.”
You can also use a lot of features that Word provides in a Web Page Toolbox. To find it, click View, then Toolbars, and finally Web Tools. If you place your browser over each feature, you will see what you can add to your webpage using Microsoft Word to design your webpage. By double clicking you will be able to add a checkbox, an option button, a drop down box, a list box, a text box, a text area, a submit box, a box to hide
information, a box that requires a password, a box to add scrolling text, a button to add sound that might be available on your computer, and a button to add a movie.
The features aren’t hard to use when designing a webpage using Microsoft Word. If you double click the scrolling text feature, there will be a place to type the desired text, and the text will continually scroll across your webpage. To add sound to your website, double click the sound box, and at the Open dialogue box you will see a down-pointing triangle. Then click My Computer, your C drive, Windows, and then Media. From there pick the music you want to add.
Of course, as with any document you make using Microsoft Word, even when not making a website, you can click Insert and add pictures from a file, or Word or Clip Art.Using Microsoft Word it is not hard to design a website and even add your own special touches.
Tags: microsoft word, web design
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April 23rd, 2008 at 7:59 pm
People who are professional web site designers will tell you that using the Microsoft programs puts a lot of extra coding into your pages that makes them hard to edit later. They may not look any different to you, but they’re not as clean and efficient as pages designed by professionals who learned html.
Essentially the Microsoft programs tend to put in extra codes and things that are specific to them, rather than the more basic codes you get if you write the page in a web design program or by hand.
It is faster to create, of course. But it might be worth checking out some local designers who could do a template for your whole site for you.
April 24th, 2008 at 4:23 am
I already know about this stuff because I have been teaching this to my students back when I was still a teacher. Aside from MS word you can also use notepad and Wordpad for your web designing projects. The methods are just the same. You can save your document as .html or .htm. The two works exactly the same.
April 24th, 2008 at 10:28 am
I really wonder on going through this post. I know all that can be done with word and what you have said here. But never imagined that a web page could be created with a word. Its stunning. The post is really some what very different. Its cool to see the features elaborated.
April 25th, 2008 at 7:56 am
I never thought that web pages could be designed using Word. Well, I’m not an expert with word and I hardly use it. Its good for static pages. But then whats the point of Front Page when you can design web pages in Word? I prefer to use dreamweaver though.
April 28th, 2008 at 9:33 am
I never knew you could design websites with Word. I would probably get a professional or at least someone that I know…because I know absolutely nothing about coding…and I would like something that I can edit myself and if editing would be hard on word, then I definitely wouldn’t use word.
April 29th, 2008 at 9:40 am
I have done this before. Use Microsoft Word to make a simple website that I can put up quickly so I can move on.
I personally believe it is not the way to go though. If you are going to use a Microsoft program to code your designs, mind as well use Notepad or MS Frontpage.
Adobe Macromedia CS3 is probably your best choice though. Combined with Adobe Photoshop CS3, it is the best combination in the world right now.
April 29th, 2008 at 11:38 pm
I’ve been searching for a program I can use for creating my own home page but what I usually get as recommended by html tutorial programs I see is Dreamweaver or notepad. I didn’t know it’s possible to use Word.
May 2nd, 2008 at 8:10 pm
Well, usually I use HTML because it gives me control over all of the little details, but I guess this tips are good for the newbie. I never use Ms Word even though it can can be easier to insert pictures and edit the background, font colors, etc. For graphics, I agree Photoshop CS is the best option.
May 10th, 2008 at 5:00 am
I haven’t really tried writing a web page using word but yeah, I am aware of the html extension available in word. I had once tried to design a website using frontpage. The pages came out alright but the graphics weren’t exactly where I would have wanted them to be so finally, I had to settle for a template I found online that looked close to the layout I was looking for. I would definitely like to know how good a web page designed in word actually works so who knows, I might give it another try.
May 13th, 2008 at 8:48 pm
I’ve used Word for 10 years and am quite conversant with it, so when I found I was able to set up a basic web page using Word, I jumped at it and I was amazed how simple it was. Sure its basic but its all I wanted. I’m on-line and I can edit it any time of day. Its great. I think you can get too bogged down with doing it “professionally”. Its expensive if I cant do it myself.
Shoota, NZ
May 17th, 2008 at 1:28 pm
I agree with alpha. Generally these sorts of things will clutter your site with redundant or poor coding. It will cause problems in other browsers. It’s fine for a simple, personal site, but if you want anything more, take the time to learn some HTML.
May 18th, 2008 at 12:41 pm
Don’t. Do. It.
It’s fine for a beginner but don’t expect much from it. Businesses should DEFINITELY not be using this. Even “serious” personal websites shouldn’t. You’re limited in design options and it’s simply not going to look good on every internet browser, which is important. It litters and clogs your site with redundant coding, which isn’t good. Take the time to learn some basics, it’s well worth it.
May 21st, 2008 at 1:37 pm
I would highly suggest NOT doing this. This is a really bad idea. Try to learn basic coding, a lot of times you can even get ready made sites that are good to go when you start posting. There are so many things wrong with trying to design using microsoft word you will regret it later.
May 25th, 2008 at 11:15 am
MSword lacks a LOT of features when it comes to web design, I find it a lot easier to use it to design a concept layout so that I can butcher the HTML from there. Besides, it was made by Microsoft, that gives me more than enough reasons to avoid it.
I do my HTML with a magnetized needle and a steady hand.
May 26th, 2008 at 12:50 pm
It works good enough for my needs. I never knew you could create a web page using Word. I created the page with it and created the header using Microsoft Picture-It. Both came installed with my computer so it cost me nothing except about 3 hours time. I do know some html which helps but that’s not necessary to get a basic web page up. Thanks for the article.
June 12th, 2008 at 11:42 am
Initially i was surprised with the post. Later on seeing from a programmers point of view, i feel like this mode will work better for a starter. Because the advanced things cannot be implemented by this elementary step. But still we need to applaud people who found that with word, we can design a page. Kudos to them.
June 13th, 2008 at 11:22 am
I find that when it comes to making a website it requires a lot of work and you do need some sort of knowledge on the coding etc. That’s why I just go and use word press, it is a lot simpler, you basically install the software and away you go, you can make posts pages and links all within a few minutes, no need to design things or to make or edit codes. I suppose that if you do have a knowledge of web design, then you can customize a word press theme if you so wish, but i just do it the simple way.
June 14th, 2008 at 1:21 pm
I think using word for web designing increases the size of the html code. I’ve tested word as a web designing software but it really doesn’t come near to any good web designing software. I’ve seen that with word 2007 there is also a feature for blogging. Unfortunately I won’t use word for any web designing. The only reason I might use it is to spell check the content of my site.
June 21st, 2008 at 3:08 pm
I could not ever imagine anyone using word as a website design program. I do not know anyone who uses this nor would I ever recommend even to a beginner Word as a design program. I am not sure what a site would like using word anyone have an example I can see that they know of.
if the only reason is to spell check then just write your content in word and spell check it then clip and past it into your code.