1. You want to create the cover pdf in Excel rather than MSWord?
2. You want to merge existing pdf files?
a. To merge existing pdf files, you must have a 3rd party application. e.g. Acrobat, not the reader, or PDFCreator v1 or v2, PDFsam, etc. Keep in mind that you users must have this application too. Which did you want to use?
3. Would all of the hyperlinks be based on E2 path?

Tip: When coding, do not use reserved command words for variable names. e.g. Dir().