Symbol characters when saving Word documents as HTML

[amos]

When a Word document containing symbols (such as Greek letters) is saved as HTML, the symbols don't display correctly in most browsers, such as Firefox, Chrome, etc. The only browser that seems to display the symbols is IE. I've been told that this is because the official "standard" for symbols in HTML is to use something called Unicode (I think), but Microsoft doesn't use Unicode, which is why the symbols don't display in most browsers.

Can anyone tell me how to save Word documents to HTML in such a way that the symbols characters will display correctly in Firefox, Chrome, and other browsers (besides IE)?