Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Word versions: 2007, 2010, 2013, and 2016. If you are using an earlier version (Word 2003 or earlier), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for earlier versions of Word, click here: Combining Documents.
Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated July 28, 2020)
This tip applies to Word 2007, 2010, 2013, and 2016
Stuart wrote about a need he had of consolidating many different text files into a single Word document. Inserting the files manually proved to be tedious, particularly when there were 20 or 30 different text files to be combined.
Fortunately for Stuart, his file names were predictable: C1000.TXT, C1001.TXT, etc. This makes putting together a macro to do the consolidation rather easy. The following example will look for files C1000.TXT through C1030.TXT, all in the C:\ directory, and combine them into the current document:
Sub CombineFiles() Dim J As Integer Dim sFile As String For J = 1000 To 1030 sFile = "c:\c" & Trim(Str(J)) & ".txt" If (Dir(sFile) > "") Then Selection.InsertFile FileName:=sFile, ConfirmConversions:=False Selection.TypeParagraph End If Next End Sub
If you want to change the range of files being inserted, just change the values at the beginning of the For ... Next loop. If the files are in a different directory, you can change the path used in the next code line, where sFile is set. If a file within the range is missing, it is automatically skipped.
There is an even easier way of combining files, however, that doesn't even involve the use of Word. You can use the following command at a Windows command prompt:
copy C1???.txt single.txt
This would combine up to 1000 files, C1000.TXT through C1999.TXT, into a single text file called SINGLE.TXT. The original files remain untouched. If you wanted to combine a smaller number of files, you could use this format:
copy C1020.txt+C1021.txt+C1022.txt+C1023.txt single.txt
This usage results in the four files, C1020.TXT through C1023.TXT, being combined into SINGLE.TXT. You can add as many files together in this manner as you desire.
There is one caveat to this technique, however. The copy command results in no extra characters being added to a file at all. In other words, the contents of C1021.TXT are placed immediately after C1020.TXT. For example if C1020.TXT contains "text 1020" and C1021.TXT contains "text 1021" then SINGLE.TXT will contain "text 1020text 1021". The only way around this to either edit each source file to make sure it ends with a carriage return, or to use the macro previously presented.
Note:
WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (9807) applies to Microsoft Word 2007, 2010, 2013, and 2016. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Word here: Combining Documents.
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2020-07-28 13:04:02
Warren Caragata
Hi
I am not sure about this line in the macro:
(Dir(sFile) > "")
Why this syntax and why brackets?
Thanks, Warren
2020-03-23 08:15:50
Bruno Quadros Rodrigues
When it combines the files, does it also update the page numbers?
2017-01-08 10:30:13
Thomas Redd
Enora,
I have the same history with Word Perfect. I am using Word 2016 and it seems to work okay for all my master documents now. I have some master documents that expand to more than 2000 pages and I have had no problems lately. I did struggle before with Word. I think you will have it work well for you.
2017-01-07 19:02:14
Enora
Back in WordPerfect days, I used a master document procedure that worked very well. (Set up a master document, sub documents, and on command, WordPerfect combined them all. The beauty of the system was the ability to edit individual documents, split them apart and then recombine as needed.) Word had an equivalent process but it was fraught with problems and could not be trusted. With each new Word version, I tested and read comments and never felt safe using it. Are things better now? I'm currently using 2010 and have NOT looked into it.
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