It's not clear what, exactly you're trying to accommplish.  Word 97 has no built in capability to handle HTML documents.  That
capability is done with an add-in that's an optional installation choice in the MS Office/Word 97 choice in Add/Remove Programs in
the Windows control panel.

If you want to open an HTML document in source code view then you can turn on the [x] Confirm Conversions at Open setting
in Tools=>options=>general

and choose a 'text' format when you open an HTML file.

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I'd like to permanently disable conversion of HTML documents when
opening them in Word 97.  I have been using Word 6 as a workaround, but
a) the 8.3 filenames sometimes make locating the desired file a
problem, and b) my scrolling mouse doesn't work in Word 6.

I assume there is a registry key or init file setting somewhere that
can do this, but after searching the web I can't find anything
appropriate.  If there's a system or Word DLL that can be deleted to
obtain the desired behavior, I have no problem with doing that.

Suggestions will be appreciated. >>