Combining multiple word documents into one

I have some code that prints out multiple word documents. It works, but when we did a full volume test, which is about 2,000 a day, the printer began skipping pieces of documents. We ramped up the memory on the printer, did not work. This VBA code is executed within an Access DB. However, when I execute it from a macro within a word document, it prints properly, but way too slow. So, I want to try to merge all the documents in to one and then try to print that.

Does anyone know how to do that within the FSO environ. I have been trying for a few hours now.

Code:

---

Dim wordApp As New Word.Application
    Dim myDoc As Word.Document
    Dim myDoc2 As Word.Document
wordApp.Visible = False
    wordApp.ScreenUpdating = False
    wordApp.DisplayAlerts = False
Const TARGET_FOLDER_ONEPAGE As String = "P:\Clients\Vanguard\Finance\testing\onepagedocs\"
    With wordApp
  Set Fso = New FileSystemObject
  Set fldr = Fso.GetFolder(TARGET_FOLDER_ONEPAGE)
  For Each f In fldr.Files
      If Right(f.Name, 4) = ".doc" Then
        Set myDoc = Documents.Open(TARGET_FOLDER_ONEPAGE & f.Name)
        myDoc.PrintOut
        myDoc.Merge
        myDoc.Close False
      End If
  Next f
      wordApp.Quit
      End With

---

I had the screenupdating off to try to minimize overhead. If anyone can show me how or point me in the write direction, it would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

You declare myDoc2...but you never do anything with that. Where is the second doc?

I assume you want to take the FIRST doc and merge the other docs that one? You need to do a second loop.

Jake has a knowledge base entry that does this. It doesn't use fso and I don't know how it will work with the volumes your talking about but here's a link to it if your interested. Works great for my needs.
http://vbaexpress.com/kb/getarticle.php?kb_id=214

Thanks for the replies. Here is what I have. I have tried all kinds of different variations on the With Mydoc2 section but none work.

Code:

---

wordApp.Visible = False
    wordApp.ScreenUpdating = False
    wordApp.DisplayAlerts = False
Set WordApp2 = CreateObject("Word.Application")
    Set myDoc2 = WordApp2.Documents.Add
    Const TARGET_FOLDER_ONEPAGE As String = "P:\Clients\Vanguard\Finance\testing\onepagedocs\"
    With wordApp
  'myDoc2 = wordApp.Documents.Add
  Set Fso = New FileSystemObject
  Set fldr = Fso.GetFolder(TARGET_FOLDER_ONEPAGE)
  For Each f In fldr.Files
      If Right(f.Name, 4) = ".doc" Then
        Set myDoc = Documents.Open(TARGET_FOLDER_ONEPAGE & f.Name)
        With myDoc2
            InsertFile.myDoc
        End With
        myDoc.Close False
      End If
  Next f
  myDoc2.SaveAs ("P:\Clients\Vanguard\Finance\testing\onepagedocs\allonepages.doc")
  wordApp.Quit
      End With
      WordBasic.DisableAutoMacros False

---

Is the with mydoc2 the wrong approach? Any help is greatly appreciated.

Code:

---

' not sure what the heck is going on with WordApp2
' and wordapp - are you making two instances????
Set WordApp2 = CreateObject("Word.Application")
' OK, make a new document
Set myDoc2 = WordApp2.Documents.Add
' please note the use of the underscore character
' it is appreciated if you would use it!  Thanks.
Const TARGET_FOLDER_ONEPAGE As String = _
"P:\Clients\Vanguard\Finance\testing\onepagedocs\"
With wordApp     
    Set Fso = New FileSystemObject
    Set fldr = Fso.GetFolder(TARGET_FOLDER_ONEPAGE)
    For Each f In fldr.Files
        If Right(f.Name, 4) = ".doc" Then
myDoc2.Merge Filename:= f.path
        End If
    Next f
myDoc2.SaveAs _
("P:\Clients\Vanguard\Finance\testing\onepagedocs\allonepages.doc")
    wordApp.Quit
End With
Set fso = Nothing
' etc etc etc

---

This should take each f in fldr (that is a .doc) and merge it to myDoc2. However, I would definitely check to see if you need to put a page break between documents (likely). In which case, just add it to myDoc2 between the merges.

Yes, I did get off the 2 word applications theory a while back and should have posted that. I modified my code with yours but it produces a document that is totally blank. I'm afraid that because these documents are "locked" when they are sent to us, that this sort of manipulation is not possible. Does that sound correct?

I tried this using my own word documents, unlocked, with only one line of text and it did not work - I got the same result - an empty word file. When I walk it through the debugger, it locks up on the Merge line. I thought I disliked Adobe. PDF's are a dream compared to Word. Any replies would be greatly appreciated.

InsertFile works for me from an Excel file

Code:

---

Option Explicit
Sub Combine()
'This code requires a referece to the Word object model
    'and windows scripting runtime
Dim Appword As New Word.Application
    Dim fso, fldr, f
Set Appword = CreateObject("Word.Application")
    Appword.Documents.Add
Set fso = New FileSystemObject
    Set fldr = fso.GetFolder("C:\AAA")
    For Each f In fldr.Files
  If Right(f.Name, 4) = ".doc" Then
      Appword.Selection.InsertFile Filename:="C:\AAA\" & f.Name
  End If
    Next f
Appword.Visible = True
End Sub

---

What happens when you use InsertFile?

My understanding is that the reason you want to merge the files together is because you were unsuccessful in printing them individually - is this correct? If so, what about setting a delay -

Code:

---

Dim wordApp As New Word.Application
    Dim myDoc As Word.Document
    Dim myDoc2 As Word.Document    ' DON'T NEED THIS!
    Dim dtmStart As Date
Const TARGET_FOLDER_ONEPAGE As String = _
        "P:\Clients\Vanguard\Finance\testing\onepagedocs\"
With wordApp
  .Visible = False
  .ScreenUpdating = False
  .DisplayAlerts = False
  Set Fso = New FileSystemObject
  Set fldr = Fso.GetFolder(TARGET_FOLDER_ONEPAGE)
  For Each f In fldr.Files
      If Right(f.Name, 4) = ".doc" Then
        Set myDoc = Documents.Open(TARGET_FOLDER_ONEPAGE & f.Name)
        ' date/time stamp
        dtmStart = Now()
        myDoc.PrintOut
        myDoc.Merge  ' WHY DO YOU NEED THIS ONE?
        ' set delay here -
        'I've used 2 minutes, may need to experiment
        Do
            DoEvents
        Loop Until DateDiff("n", dtmStart, Now()) > 2
        myDoc.Close False
      End If
  Next f
    End With
wordApp.Quit

---

Sorry for the late reply. Insertfile works correctly except there are page counters on each document (page 1 of 2) that are in the headers that dissappear when I use insertfile.

I have tested with the delay and unless I put in an obnoxiously high pause like ten seconds, we end up with documents printed that ONLY contain signatures on them. No matter how much horsepower we throw at it (a gig of ram on the machine running it and the printer cards quadrupled), word is just brutally inefficient for high volume printing. At ten seconds a piece for 3,000 a day, that is too much spool time.

We are going with splitting up the job to multiple printers at the same time. The macro to print only works when running it from within a word document - if I run it from the Access database, it has all these effieciency problems.

The other option is to create PDF's and then combine them.

If I continue to test with the Insertfile option and try to fix the headers, I will report back with results.

As always, thanks for everyone's contributions.

Don't get me wrong I'm not telling you how to do business, but given you're printing 3000 copies a day, have you considered either emailing as a pdf?

Or if this is not an option using a commercial printers (i.e. a printing company) as given the number of issues you appear to be having, this may be faster and/or cheaper given the volumes in which you are printing.

Actually, we are a high volume print shop. This is a case of us accomodating a format we don't normally get, we usually get data and build the app ourselves using Dialogue by Exstream. Lets face it, Word was not designed for variable high volume print. In addition each document has a signature on it so they are fairly large for one or two pages(around 83k). Yes we are considering coverting to a PDF and then combining those to one PDF and printing that. We have a program that converts word to pdf and I am currently working on executing this from VBA with the Shell command. When I get it working, I will post. Thanks for the reply.