Combining Word Documents (Word 97)

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I am looking for a way to combine all of the Word 97 files in a directory into a single Word 97 file. Word seems not to offer any solution, let alone an elegant one.

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Perhaps somebody else will come up with a non-VBA solution. Here is a macro you can adapt to your needs:

Sub CombineDocs()
Dim doc As Document
Dim strFileName As String
Dim strPath As String
Set doc = Documents.Add
strPath = InputBox(“Enter folder”)
If strPath = “” Then Exit Sub
strFileName = Dir(strPath & “*.doc”)
Do While strFileName “”
Selection.InsertFile strFileName
Selection.InsertBreak wdSectionBreakNextPage
strFileName = Dir
Loop
End Sub

The macro will prompt you to enter the path of the folder. After each document, a section break (next page) is inserted. You can change the instruction

Selection.InsertBreak wdSectionBreakNextPage

if you don’t like that.

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Hans,

Thank you the quick response and for the solution.

I am having difficulty getting it to run. Each time I enter a directory name, the code finds the first file, and an error message pops up saying:

Run time error ‘5174’
This file could not be found.
Try one or more of the following:
Check the spelling of the name of the document.
Try a different file name.
(AUG97.DOC)

The file name in () is always the first filename in the directory. I have tried a small directory with only 2 files, 1 file, etc., and the same error message appears.

What am I doing wrong?

Don

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I can’t work out the reasoning on Hans solution so I will provide my own method

Sub BuildDoc()
  Dim I As Integer
  With Application.FileSearch
    .LookIn = "C:Work"
    .FileName = "*.doc"
    .SearchSubFolders = False
    .Execute
    If .FoundFiles.count > 0 Then
          For I = 1 To .FoundFiles.count
            Selection.text = .FoundFiles(I) & vbCr
            Selection.InsertFile FileName:=.FoundFiles(I), Range:="", _
                ConfirmConversions:=False, Link:=False, Attachment:=False
            Selection.text = vbCr & vbCr
          Next I
    End If
  End With
End Sub

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Thank you, Andrew. Excellent solution.

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Don,

Sorry about that. I had only tested it with a path that was already the current directory. It should work if you change the Selection.InsertFile line by

Selection.InsertFile strPath & “” & strFileName

But meanwhile, Andrew Lockton has posted a more elegant solution – the user can browse for the folder instead of typing it.

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Thank you, Hans. Works great.

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Hans,

Just found your macro when presented with a pile of files to combine…

Couldn’t make Andrew’s solution work and I used a tip from the MVP to amend yours to:

Sub CombineDocs()

Dim sPath As String
Dim doc As Document
Dim strFileName As String

With Dialogs(wdDialogCopyFile)
If .Display 0 Then

sPath = .Directory

Else
MsgBox “Dialog cancelled”
End If
End With

Set doc = Documents.Add
strFileName = Dir(sPath & “*.doc”)
Do While strFileName “”
Selection.InsertFile sPath & “” & strFileName
Selection.InsertBreak wdSectionBreakNextPage
strFileName = Dir
Loop

End Sub

Worked fine for me – many thanks to you & andrew and maybe this amended version will be of use to someone.

David

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