Microsoft KB Archive/290155

= OFFXP: HTML File Opens in the Last Office Program in Which It Was Edited =

Article ID: 290155

Article Last Modified on 1/31/2007

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APPLIES TO


 * Microsoft Excel 2002 Standard Edition
 * Microsoft PowerPoint 2002 Standard Edition
 * Microsoft Word 2002 Standard Edition

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This article was previously published under Q290155



SYMPTOMS
When you edit an HTML file in one Microsoft Office XP program and then try to open the file in another Office XP program, the HTML file opens in the program that was previously used to edit it.



CAUSE
Each Office program inserts a meta tag into an HTML file when the file is saved. For example, if you save an HTML document in Word, the meta tag looks similar to the following:



This meta tag causes Excel or PowerPoint to start Word when you try to open the HTML file in either Excel or PowerPoint.



WORKAROUND
To work around this behavior and open the HTML file in a different program than the one in which it was last edited, follow these steps:
 * 1) Start the program in which you want to open the HTML file.
 * 2) On the File menu, click Open.
 * 3) Locate and select the HTML file that you want to open.
 * 4) In the lower-right corner of the Open dialog box, click the down arrow to the right of Open.
 * 5) Click Open in  , where   is the name of the Office XP program in which you want to open the HTML file.

NOTE: When you open an HTML file by using these steps in either Word or PowerPoint, you can save the file only if you use a name that is different from the original HTML file name. This is because the file is opened read-only in Word or PowerPoint.



MORE INFORMATION
The following table lists the meta tags that are created by the Office programs when you save a document in HTML format.

Program       Meta tag - Excel          PowerPoint     Word          

