Using Office Documents in a Web World

Keeping Track of Supporting Files

An HTML document consists exclusively of plain text. Within this text are embedded tags that specify the formatting and functionality of the page. Pictures, animations, sounds, and other resources that appear to be part of the page when viewed in a browser are actually stored in supporting files that are referenced by the main HTML page.

In contrast, native Microsoft Office documents (such as Word DOC files and Excel XLS files) maintain all text and embedded elements within one file. When an Office document is saved as a Web page, the Office application saves the main document as an HTML file and automatically creates a folder containing all the supporting files that are referenced by the HTML file. The folder is created in the same folder where the main HTML file is saved and is named name_files, where name is the document name specified in the Save dialog box.

Note   The word files in the supporting files folder name changes depending on the language setting specified in the Office application.

If you don’t want supporting files stored in a folder, you can change an option in each application to specify that the files are stored at the same level as the HTML file. For example, if your users store their files on a server, and you have not given them permission to create folders on the server, they see an error message when they save an HTML file that contains embedded files.

To work around this error message, set the default to save the supporting files at the same level as the HTML file. In the Options box (Tools menu), click the General tab, and then click Web Options. In the Web Options box, click the Files tab, and clear the Organize supporting files in a folder check box.

System Policy Tip   You can use a system policy to determine whether supporting files are stored in a folder or at the same level as the HTML file. Use the Organize supporting files in a folder policy in the Microsoft Office 2000\Tools | Options | General | Web Options…\Files category to control this behavior for all applications in Office. For more information about system policies, see

Within the supporting files folder is a file named Filelist.xml that contains an index of all the supporting files. This file list tracks which files are actually embedded in the file. If you remove an embedded file from your HTML file, the embedded file is automatically deleted from the file list and the supporting files folder.