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I need to convert some very large HTML files (about 800KB, PDF equivalent about 30 pages) into MS Word. It's easy up to a point: just open in Word and resave as docx. Problem is, the resulting Word doc is more than 3MB, and takes ten minutes to open. It's nearly unusable.

One issue might be -- the HTML has an enormous number of form elements, and the converted Word doc tries to keep them live (so, for example, radio button sets continue to function as in a web browser). That is not necessary. It would be fine if they were converted just to static things. The point of the word docs is just to give reviewers a convenient format to review and comment on the text portion.

Does anyone know of -- -- a way to globally disable all the form elements in a word doc, or convert them to some static equivalent images or whatever? -- a utility that will convert HTML to Word and omit the features that cause document bloat? -- other tricks to reduce mega-bloat in large HTML files opened in Word?

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  • Does it have to be Word, would print to PDF be acceptable? Could you convert to plain text? Sep 13, 2012 at 7:55
  • I think PDF is much better and have tried to convince the customer, but they keep asking for Word. Text wouldn't preserve the table structure, which is essential to keep it readable and give a true sense of what the material looks like. The table layout is really what matters; exact replication of colors, styles, HTML forms etc. is not important. Sep 13, 2012 at 8:15
  • Have you tried Open Office? Sometimes it is better that Microsoft-Word. It can convert html to MS-Word, but have no idea if it is better. Sep 13, 2012 at 12:01
  • You could convert the forms to tables etc. Then convert to word, to see if that helps. Sep 13, 2012 at 12:02
  • I thought of Open Office, but don't have it installed. Meanwhile, my nephew discovered a trick -- if the html file is opened in Word and saved in .odt format, all the form elements are stripped out and the file becomes a normal, usable 280KB. It would be nicer if the form elements were converted to images, but having them disappear completely is better than nothing. The file looks OK otherwise. Only problem is, the process takes a painful 20 minutes, and often Word crashes in the middle. Sep 13, 2012 at 14:21

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