Get crisp, clean graphics from a Word document

Here’s a tip when you need to extract GOOD graphics out of a Word document: Save the document as HTML pages.

You get the text, which you can ignore, and a folder of images in both PNG and JPG formats. If they’re screenshots and the like, the JPGs are invariably scruffy (jaggy, pixellated etc.), but the PNGs are crisp and clear. Quicker than capturing – even with SnagIt – and you get the images at the full size they were saved in the document, not Word’s resized version to fit the page.

Update: 27 May 2008: Save as HTML (File > Save as > Web Page (*.htm, *.html)), not filtered HTML (File > Save as > Web Page, Filtered (*.htm, *.html)). Filtered HTML only gives you GIFs and JPGs; you need ‘straight’ HTML to get PNGs.

Update: 21 August 2008: This behavior seems to be the same in Word 2007. Saving as Filtered HTML only results in JPGs, whereas saving as HTML gives you PNGs as well.