WD97: Title of HTML Document Begins with a Question Mark

• Microsoft Word 97 for Windows

SYMPTOMS

When you save a Word document in HTML format, the saved HTML document title begins with a question mark.

CAUSE

This problem occurs if the first line text in the document is a bullet item.

WORKAROUND

To work around this problem, use any of the following methods.

Method 1: Change the Title in the Summary Information

Before you save the Word document as HTML, perform the following steps:

1. On the File menu, click Properties.

2. Click the Summary tab.

3. In the Title box, delete the square character (and following space) at the start of the title, and then click OK.

   NOTE: The square represents the bullet from the first line of text of the document.

Method 2: Delete the Bullet Code from the <TITLE> Tag

View the HTML source and delete the "&#nnnnn;" from the <TITLE> tag.

NOTE: The nnnnn can be any series of numbers. These numbers represent the bullet that cannot be correctly converted by Microsoft Word when contained as part of the Title of the Word document.

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in the Microsoft products listed at the beginning of this article. We are researching this problem and will post new information here in the Microsoft Knowledge Base as it becomes available.

MORE INFORMATION

When you save a document, Word will automatically create a title for the document from the text of the Word document. If the text starts with a bullet character, Word doesn't correctly convert the bullet character.

Although the converted bullet doesn't appear as part of the document title (on the Word document Title bar); it does appear in the Title box on the Summary tab in the Properties dialog box. When you save a Word document in HTML format, Word uses the Title from the document Summary Information as the title of the HTML document.

For additional information, please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

   ARTICLE-ID: Q126793
   TITLE     : Limitations of Word HTML Converter

Keywords          : winword word8 word97 kbwdinternet kbusage
Version           : 97
Platform          : WINDOWS
Issue type        : kbbug