How to make a macro that split word documents, using headings as markers?

[longnguyen94]

Hi guys, I'm trying to create a macro in Word 2019 that will help split a long document into multiple shorter documents. Here's a summary of what I'm trying to make the macro do:

1. Receive input on what heading to use as base.
2. Search for that heading from the beginning of the document.
3. Once found an instance of that heading, proceed to copy everything from that heading downward, until it hit another instance of the same heading.
4. Create a new document and make a duplication of the copied content over there.
5. Save the file in a specified path, and append a number at the end to denote its position in the original document.
6. Close the new file and go back to the original document.
7. Loop the above till the end of the original document.

After Googling around, I've manage to cobbled together a piece of code as follow:

Sub SplitChapterByHeading()
    Application.ScreenUpdating = False
    On Error GoTo ErrorReport
    ' Cancel macro when no heading is defined
    Dim HeadingName As Integer
    ' The name of the heading to use as base
    Dim Msg As String
    ' This is what to display on the dialog box
    Dim TotalLines      As Long
    Dim x               As Long
    Dim Groups()        As Long
    Dim Counter         As Long
    Dim y               As Long
    Dim FilePath        As String
    Dim FileName()      As String
     
    PlayTheSound "W21 - Awaiting Orders.wav"
    Msg = "Which Heading to use as base (NUMBER ONLY)?"
    HeadingName = InputBox(Msg)
    Application.DisplayAlerts = False
    PlayTheSound "W22 - As You Requested.wav"
     
    FilePath = ActiveDocument.Path
    Selection.GoTo What:=wdGoToLine, Which:=wdGoToAbsolute, Count:=1
    Do
        TotalLines = Selection.Range.Information(wdFirstCharacterLineNumber)
        Selection.MoveDown Unit:=wdLine, Count:=1
    Loop While TotalLines <> Selection.Range.Information(wdFirstCharacterLineNumber)
    Selection.GoTo What:=wdGoToLine, Which:=wdGoToAbsolute, Count:=1
    For x = 1 To TotalLines
        If Selection.Style = "Heading " & HeadingName Then
            Counter = Counter + 1
            ReDim Preserve Groups(1 To Counter)
            ReDim Preserve FileName(1 To Counter)
            Groups(Counter) = x
            Selection.EndKey Unit:=wdLine, Extend:=wdExtend
            FileName(Counter) = Selection.Text
            FileName(Counter) = Left(Selection.Text, Len(FileName(Counter)) - 1)
            Selection.HomeKey Unit:=wdLine, Extend:=wdExtend
        End If
        Selection.MoveDown Unit:=wdLine, Count:=1
    Next
    Counter = Counter + 1
    ReDim Preserve Groups(1 To Counter)
    Groups(Counter) = TotalLines
     
    For x = 1 To UBound(Groups) - 1
        y = Groups(x + 1) - Groups(x)
        Selection.GoTo What:=wdGoToLine, Which:=wdGoToAbsolute, Count:=Groups(x)
        Selection.MoveDown Unit:=wdLine, Count:=y, Extend:=wdExtend
        Selection.Copy
        Documents.Add
        Selection.Paste
        ActiveDocument.SaveAs FilePath & "\Splited Document\" & FileName(x) & ".docx"
        ActiveDocument.Close
    Next x
     
ErrorReport:


End Sub

When I do a test run on a document, it correctly find the first heading, but didn't move downward to copy the content underneath it. It only copy a small portion of the heading, and put it in a new document that it doesn't even bother to save, then end.


I could only hazard a guess that a potential source of error is because the heading in my test document contained a line break. For example, here's how a heading looks like:

Chapter 1
The Beginning

After removing the line break, the macro did manage to get further down, but it still didn't copy the whole section, and didn't save the file.


Since my knowledge of VBA is extremely rudimentary, I have no idea how to fix it.


Could someone help me out with this?

Note: here's the test file I use, just in case it contains some sort of peculiarity: [WIP] Split test.docx

[longnguyen94]

UPDATE: After an afternoon of Googling, I've managed to cobble out a new code that works significantly better! It's as below:

Sub SplitChapterByHeading()


Application.ScreenUpdating = False
Dim Rng As Range
Dim HeadingName As Integer
' The name of the heading to use as base
Dim Msg As String
' This is what to display on the dialog box
Dim FilePath As String
FilePath = ActiveDocument.Path


'PlayTheSound "W21 - Awaiting Orders.wav"
Msg = "Which Heading to use as base (NUMBER ONLY)?"
HeadingName = InputBox(Msg)
Application.DisplayAlerts = False
'PlayTheSound "W22 - As You Requested.wav"


With ActiveDocument.Range
Do
    With .Find
        .ClearFormatting
        .Replacement.ClearFormatting
        .Text = ""
        .Style = "Heading " & HeadingName
        .Format = True
        .Forward = True
        .MatchCase = True
        .Wrap = wdFindStop
        .MatchWildcards = False
        .Execute
    End With
    
    If .Find.Found = True Then
        Set Rng = .Duplicate.GoTo(What:=wdGoToBookmark, Name:="\HeadingLevel")
        Rng.Select
        Selection.Copy
        Documents.Add
        Selection.Paste
        ActiveDocument.SaveAs FileName:=FilePath & "\Splited Document\chap.docx"
        ActiveDocument.Close
    End If
Loop While .Find.Found
End With
Application.ScreenUpdating = True
End Sub

Basically, it search through the whole document, looking for any passage using a specific heading style, then copy it along with everything underneath to a new document, and save it. I don't fully get the logic behind it, but it seems to do the job pretty well.

However, now I ran into another problem: this macro will make every save the same file, overriding each other. At the end of the day, there's only 1 "chapter.docx" file, and it contain the very last section the macro copied.

Is there a way for it to save every find into a separate file, with each having a sequence number, such as "chapter (1).docx," "chapter (2).docx," etc.?

[gmayor]

Based on your macro, the following will work, however if this is the result of a mail merge - see https://www.gmayor.com/MergeAndSplit.htm

Option Explicit

Sub SplitChapterByHeading()


    Application.ScreenUpdating = False
    Dim Rng As Range
    Dim HeadingName As Integer
    ' The name of the heading to use as base
    Dim Msg As String
    ' This is what to display on the dialog box
    Dim FilePath As String
    Dim fName As String
    
    ActiveDocument.Save
    If ActiveDocument.path = "" Then Exit Sub
    
    FilePath = ActiveDocument.path & "\Splited Document\"


    'PlayTheSound "W21 - Awaiting Orders.wav"
    Msg = "Which Heading to use as base (NUMBER ONLY)?"
    HeadingName = InputBox(Msg)
    Application.DisplayAlerts = False
    'PlayTheSound "W22 - As You Requested.wav"

    CreateFolders FilePath

    With ActiveDocument.Range
        Do
            With .Find
                .ClearFormatting
                .Replacement.ClearFormatting
                .Text = ""
                .Style = "Heading " & HeadingName
                .Format = True
                .Forward = True
                .MatchCase = True
                .Wrap = wdFindStop
                .MatchWildcards = False
                .Execute
            End With

            If .Find.Found = True Then
                Set Rng = .Duplicate.GoTo(What:=wdGoToBookmark, Name:="\HeadingLevel")
                Rng.Select
                Selection.Copy
                Documents.Add
                Selection.Paste
                fName = FileNameUnique(FilePath, "chap", ".docx")
                ActiveDocument.SaveAs FileName:=FilePath & fName
                ActiveDocument.Close
            End If
        Loop While .Find.Found
    End With
    Application.ScreenUpdating = True
End Sub

Private Function FileNameUnique(strPath As String, _
                                strFileName As String, _
                                strExtension As String) As String
'Graham Mayor - http://www.gmayor.com - Last updated - 22 Jun 2018
'strPath is the path in which the file is to be saved
'strFilename is the filename to check
'strExtension is the extension of the filename to check
Dim lng_F As Long
Dim lng_Name As Long
Dim FSO As Object
    Set FSO = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
    Do Until Right(strPath, 1) = "\"
        strPath = strPath & "\"
    Loop
    If InStr(1, strFileName, "\") > 0 Then
        strFileName = Mid(strFileName, InStrRev(strFileName, "\") + 1)
    End If
    strExtension = Replace(strExtension, Chr(46), "")
    lng_F = 1
    If InStr(1, strFileName, strExtension) > 0 Then
        lng_Name = Len(strFileName) - (Len(strExtension) + 1)
    Else
        lng_Name = Len(strFileName)
    End If
    strFileName = Left(strFileName, lng_Name)
    'If the filename exists, add or increment a number to the filename
    'and keep checking until a unique name is found
    Do While FSO.FileExists(strPath & strFileName & Chr(46) & strExtension) = True
        If Right(strFileName, 1) = ")" Then strFileName = Split(strFileName, "(")(0)
        strFileName = Left(strFileName, lng_Name) & "(" & lng_F & ")"
        lng_F = lng_F + 1
    Loop
    'Reassemble the filename
    FileNameUnique = strFileName & Chr(46) & strExtension
lbl_Exit:
    Set FSO = Nothing
    Exit Function
End Function

Private Sub CreateFolders(strPath As String)
'A Graham Mayor/Greg Maxey AddIn Utility Macro
Dim oFSO As Object
Dim lng_PathSep As Long
Dim lng_PS As Long
    If Right(strPath, 1) <> "\" Then strPath = strPath & "\"
    lng_PathSep = InStr(3, strPath, "\")
    If lng_PathSep = 0 Then GoTo lbl_Exit
    Set oFSO = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
    Do
        lng_PS = lng_PathSep
        lng_PathSep = InStr(lng_PS + 1, strPath, "\")
        If lng_PathSep = 0 Then Exit Do
        If Len(Dir(Left(strPath, lng_PathSep), vbDirectory)) = 0 Then Exit Do
    Loop
    Do Until lng_PathSep = 0
        If Not oFSO.FolderExists(Left(strPath, lng_PathSep)) Then
            oFSO.createfolder Left(strPath, lng_PathSep)
        End If
        lng_PS = lng_PathSep
        lng_PathSep = InStr(lng_PS + 1, strPath, "\")
    Loop
lbl_Exit:
    Set oFSO = Nothing
    Exit Sub
End Sub