Share via

Some HTML files in Word 2010 (Windows) open fine which do not open in Word 2011 (Mac)

Anonymous
2012-06-19T16:42:04+00:00

While it's true that Word is not designed to be used as a HTML editor, there are files in Word 2010 (Windows) that open fine which do not open in Word 2011 (Mac).

These are principally HTML Word documents that have associated header/footer files.

[New follow-up question split off by moderator from this thread]

Microsoft 365 and Office | Word | For home | Windows

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

0 comments

Answer accepted by question author

Jim G 134K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
2012-06-24T00:36:12+00:00

Word's ability to open HTML files is a left-over from Word 95. At that time, the idea was to make a document in Word, save it as HTML, upload the HTML files to a web server, where another Word user could use Word to download the HTML and reconstruct the Word document. Along the way there was a Word add-in that turned Word into a sort of WYSWIG HTML editor, but that add-in is no longer supported or distributed by Microsoft.

A lot has changed since 1995. HTML is no longer version 3. The default file format for Word is no longer the proprietary Word (.doc) file format and has been replaced with a standards-based Office Open XML file format (.docx and its contemporary variants). The idea of making web pages in Microsoft Word never really took off - HTML code snobs really hated machine generated HTML code because it was not easily human readable.

I recommend that you abandon the old HTML file format and stick with the standards-based open file formats. If you want to get into the HTML and XML code, all you have to do is change (.docx) file extension to (.zip) in Finder and then double-click the (.zip) file to get at the code.

I can't help but wonder why anyone would save in the old HTML format any more. Did web pages even have headers and footers back then?

Was this answer helpful?

1 person found this answer helpful.
0 comments

2 additional answers

Sort by: Most helpful
Most helpful Newest Oldest
  1. Anonymous
    2012-06-24T21:12:54+00:00

    Well, it seems we've had an informative history lesson here. While Word 2007/10 continue to support HTML editing (tolerably), Word 2008/11 never really have.

    Unfortunately the project I'm on is supported by ColdFusion developers, so just throwing out years of work to port to C# or ASP .NET (which I'd honestly prefer to work in) is not going to be an option.

    We've been using this, well, hack in Word to generate Word files from scratch so we can insert specific content based on the users needs. These files include headers and footers. The solution, for now, will be to minimize the margins and place the header and footer content in the main body of the document. The documents aren't meant to be edited much, just if there are minor edits the users wish to make.

    This will be my future approach.

    http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg605189.aspx

    I'd like to let you both know that while both of you were informative, you should know that complete redesigns are rarely things businesses have the budget for. If you want to present that as an option, fine. If you want to suggest it as a be all and all option, that will rarely be considered 'helpful'

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments
  2. Anonymous
    2012-06-20T12:29:53+00:00

    Hello

    This question was split from another thread...so I am not really sure what the question is. Word 2010 and Word 2011 are two completely different products. The developers tried to make them "look" similar and support documents with each other.

    I do not have a answer as to why a html file will open in one version and not the other. As stated in the previous thread Word is not an html editor and there are probably aspects of the file that Word 2011 cannot translate.

    There is a document on known problems in Word 2011, but didn't find anything specific to html files:

    http://mac2.microsoft.com/help/office/14/en-us/word/item/bb539409-4be8-48da-a1b3-842cf958fffb

    Sorry I could not provide a solid answer or help.

    As a workaround, if you open the file on the Windows version and save it (with or without edits), can you then open the file on teh Mac Word?

    Thanks...

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments