[ARCHIVED] How can I convert an MS Word document into a Canvas page?

[russ_abbott]

How can I convert an MS Word document into a Canvas page? (Please see attached for the page I want to use.)

[Chris_Hofer · Accepted solution]

Hello there,  @russ_abbott ...

I think probably the easiest thing to do would be to just load this document to a content page in your course and have it automatically open for students when the visit the page.  First you'd want to create the page.  How do I create a new page in a course?  Here is where you can type in some text (if you want) above where the page will be displayed telling your students what to read or pay close attention to within the document.  Then, you can use this Guide to link to your document and have it open automatically for your students: How do I set the auto-open for inline preview for files using the Rich Content Editor as an instruct....

Another way (though a bit more complex) to do this, if you wanted to completely eliminate the Word document altogether, would be to use a website with an online Word to HTML converter.  The problem with pasting content directly from Microsoft Word into the Rich Content Editor (RCE) of Canvas is that it brings along a lot of really junky HTML code with it...which can make for quite the headache down the road.  So, using sites like https://wordhtml.com/ or Word To HTML - Easy to use & Instant Conversions (there are others if you search Google) are your friends here.  Essentially what these sites do is to take your document you pasted into the website and clean up the HTML code...which you can then paste into your Canvas page.  https://community.canvaslms.com/docs/DOC-26545-how-do-i-use-the-html-view-in-the-rich-content-editor... But, you'll still need to address things like the images you had in your Word file...making sure that each is an image file and making sure that those files are uploaded to your course "Files" area so you can embed them into the page of your course.  The Word to HTML online converter may not make everything look exactly like you wanted, so there will potentially be some clean-up of your own that you'll need to spend some time working on yourself.

Hopefully these resources will give you some options to consider, Russ.  Sing out if you have any other questions about this.  For now, stay safe...be well.

[russ_abbott]

Thanks for the great answer. I'll try some of your suggestions.

[thompson]

Lesson: In notepad I opened the HTML export generated by WordPerfect. Viewed from a browser, this HTML code was formatted almost identically to the original.

When importing into the Canvas RTF, I first changed the block type from Paragraph to "preformatted." In the raw HTML Mode there appeared "<pre></pre>" . I placed the cursor between the two "vectors" and pasted the entire HTML file as text. Then I selected everything and took it back to "Paragraph" block. The resulting formatting was closer to what I desired.