File Format & Compatibility

How to Unlink Word Images Before Publishing as a Web Page

Maira Mehtab Sep 21, 2026 868 views

Question details

The user wants to know how to manage and unlink image paths in a Word document when saving it as a web page, ensuring images can point to a web server rather than a local directory.

Product: Word Processor
Device & OS: not provided
Scenario: Saving a document containing images as a filtered HTML web page for online publishing.
Observed behavior: When saving as a web page, the software automatically copies embedded images into a local folder ending in '_files' and generates relative links to those local copies.

Before you start

Ensure you have the exact absolute URLs of where your images will be hosted on your web server, as you will need to replace the local image paths manually if you want them to link externally.

Solution 1Recommended

Embed Images Directly During Insertion

Use the standard insertion method to embed images directly into the document rather than linking to local files, ensuring proper extraction when converting to HTML.

By default, images inserted into your document are embedded. However, if you previously used the 'Link to File' option, the document will reference your local hard drive.

Embedding them properly is the first step to ensuring the HTML export creates the standard '_files' folder correctly.

Insert Image

Go to the 'Insert' tab on the top ribbon and click on 'Pictures' or 'Picture'.

Select the Image

Browse your local directory, select the desired image, and click the 'Insert' button directly. Avoid clicking the dropdown arrow and selecting 'Link to File'.

Solution 2

Edit the Generated HTML Image Paths

Save the document as a web page and manually edit the HTML source code to replace local folder paths with your web server URLs.

Advanced Web Page Export

Easily Manage Image Links and Publish Web Pages with WPS Office

WPS Writer provides seamless tools for managing embedded or linked images, making it easy to prepare documents for web publishing. You can quickly save files as HTML web pages and ensure your formatting stays intact.

1. Open WPS Writer: Launch WPS Office and open your text document containing the images you want to publish.
2. Verify Image Insertion: Ensure your images are embedded by inserting them directly via the 'Insert' tab without checking any 'Link to File' boxes.
3. Export as HTML: Click 'Menu' > 'Save As' > 'More Image and Other Formats', then choose 'Web Page (*.html; *.htm)' from the format dropdown to generate your files.

Fully compatible with Microsoft Word (.docx) formatsEasily manage embedded images vs linked local filesExport documents directly to HTML web page formatLightweight, fast, and free to use for daily office tasks

microsoft office alternative - wps office

Frequently Asked Questions

Why are my images saving in a separate '_files' folder when I save as a web page?

When saving a document as a web page (HTML), word processors automatically extract embedded images into a dedicated subfolder (usually ending in '_files') because HTML files are plain text and cannot store image data internally. The HTML file uses this folder to reference and display the images.

What is the difference between 'Insert' and 'Link to File' for images?

Selecting 'Insert' embeds a copy of the image directly into the document file, increasing its size but making it easily shareable. 'Link to File' merely creates a reference to the image's location on your hard drive, meaning the image will break if the document is moved to another computer without the image file.

Can I stop the software from creating the local image folder when saving as HTML?

No, creating the local folder is the native behavior for exporting HTML from a word processor. If you want to bypass this and use external links, you must save the HTML file first, then open it in a text editor to manually replace the local folder paths with your external image URLs.

Document & File Issues