How to Prepare a Word-Processing File for the Web
By Jonathan Lehrer
My Web-design clients who send me word-processing files for Web
upload may be unwittingly costing themselves money simply by following
the "rules" they may have learned on a typewriter.
That's because habits learned in typing class add extra characters
and formatting that I have to remove before uploading the file. This
extra time is a hassle for me and might add up to extra cost for the
client. And it can be avoided easily.
For example, prior to uploading, I remove extra spaces, unnecessary
carriage returns (paragraph marks) and other formatting that your
typing teacher thought was essential.
General word-processing tips
- Despite what you learned in typing class, don’t hit ENTER at the
end of each line. This prevents the line from reflowing properly if
a word is added or deleted.
- If there is no reason to hit ENTER at all, there is certainly no
reason to hit it twice to achieve a double-spacing effect. The
correct way to double-space is to select text, then use the menu
commands for FORMAT | PARAGRAPH | LINE SPACING | DOUBLE.
- No need to hit ENTER twice after each paragraph. Instead, go to
FORMAT | PARAGRAPH | SPACING | AFTER and click the up arrow to add
space between paragraphs.
- Don’t tell your old typing teacher, but you should not put two
spaces after a period. Unless you are using the font Courier, two
spaces are just too much space. And, when you convert the file to
HTML, extra, unnecessary characters are added to the code,
increasing the download time.
- Resist the typewriter temptation to indent paragraphs with the
TAB key. Instead, set a consistent paragraph indent by selecting the
text, then using the menu commands for FORMAT | PARAGRAPH |
INDENTATION.
- Don’t use TAB to position text on the page. If you wish to
center some text, select the text, then go to FORMAT | PARAGRAPH |
ALIGNMENT | CENTER.
- If you need to have text set up in a table (e.g., names in one
column and phone numbers in the next column) please don’t use tabs
and spaces as you might have done on a typewriter. Use a table.
Follow the menu commands for TABLE | INSERT TABLE.
- AVOID ALL-CAPS. On a typewriter, ALL CAPS was the only way to
call attention to text. But numerous studies have shown that text
set in all caps is more difficult to read. Use bold or italics, but
set the type in normal upper-and-lowercase.
A smoother conversion to HTML
Instead of placing "more" or "continued" in the body of the text,
please put them in the footer of the page. Instead of putting "page
two" in the body of the text, place it in the header to the page. This
will work only if you go to FILE | PAGE SETUP | LAYOUT and select the
option to make the first page different.
Uploading from Microsoft Word to FrontPage
You might have heard that trying to import a Microsoft Word file
into Microsoft FrontPage would cause a horrible jumble of HTML code.
That all changed with FrontPage 2002. Just use the INSERT | FILE
command in FrontPage. Locate your .DOC file. FrontPage will skip most
of the formatting. Normal paragraphs will be imported with simple <p>
tags.
[posted 2/8/04]
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