Oftentimes you will have a document already prepared in Word or Excel and you would simple like to insert the contents into a DreamWeaver MX page so that you won't have to spend a lot of time retyping and/or reformatting this document. Well, there is good news and bad news. The good news is that it is simple to import Word and Excel documents into DreamWeaver MX. The bad news, which isn't really all that bad, is that you will have to reformat some, but not all, of the data once you import it. My rule of thumb is to weight the costs. Generally speaking, if the document is small, them just redo it in DreamWeaver if you loose too much of the formatting. It will be quicker that way. If, however, the document is lengthy then it is probably worth the time to import it and redo the formatting in those parts of the document that were not well translated when the Word or Excel document was imported.

Importing MS Word Documents

The easiest way to add content from Word documents into webpage is to simply copy it and paste it. Be aware, however, that this only works well for text that is not overly formatted. Text that contains a lot of formatting, bulleted text or text in tables for example, lose too much when copied and pasted. In order to bring this type of content in it must first be converted to a webpage (Word) or to a tab delimited file (Excel) and then imported into DreamWeaver MX.

I. Converting a Word '97 Document to HTML

This tutorial covers this version only because it is the version supported by the university. If you are running a different version of Word, please send me an e-mail at Mary.Villanueva@mail.tamucc.edu requesting an appointment for instruction. Thank you.

1. Open your document in Word
2. Single-click on File on the Main Menu Bar
3. Single-click on Save as HTML
4. Single-click on the Save button

II. Importing the Word HTML Document in DreamWeaver MX

1. Open DreamWeaver MX
2. Single-click on File on the Main Menu Bar
3. Single-click on Import
   1. Single-click on Word HTML
   2. Locate the Word HTML document that you saved
   3. The Clean Up Word HTML opens. It cleans up unwanted extraneous code that Microsoft puts in when it converts a Word document to HTML.
      1. Single-click on the Ok button to complete this process

DreamWeaver will open the Word HTML document as a separate web page because that is what it is. If you want to make this document part of an existing page that you are designing, then simply copy and paste the data from the imported Word HTML page to the page that you are designing. Remember that some reformatting may be necessary. It is best to reformat after you have brought the content into the page that you are working on.

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Importing MS Excel Spreadsheets (Tabular Documents)

I. Saving Tabular Data as Text Delimited Files

Before you can bring in spreadsheet data, you must first convert it to a Text Delimited file. The following will step you through the process for converting Excel spreadsheets to a Text Delimited file.

1. Open your spreadsheet in Excel
2. Single-click on File on the Main Menu Bar
3. Single-click on Save As to open the Save As window
4. Single-click on the down-arrow in the Save As Type field ( located at bottom of the window)
5. Single-click on Text (Tab Delimited) (*.txt)
6. Place your I-Beam in the File Name field, single-click, and name your file
7. Single-click the Save button
8. Single-click on the OK button to complete this process

II. Importing Tabular (Excel) Files

[Import Tabular Data Window]

[Zoom In]

1. Single-click on the Common Panel tab which is located on the Insert Panel
2. Single-click the Tabular Data icon
   1. Single-click on Browse and locate the file that you converted in Excel. The suffix will be .txt.
   2. Single-click on the OK button to bring in the spreadsheet data in table format
3. Reformat as needed

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