Comments on: Automated method for adding the same header to multiple Word documents?

Question: Automated method for adding the same header to multiple Word documents?

chudmonkey — Tue, 16 Oct 2012 14:07:36 -0800

Is there an automated method for adding the same header to multiple Word (.doc) documents?

I have a collection of several thousand .doc files and I've been tasked with giving each one an identical header containing an image. I've been given Word 2003 to work with, but I could presumably switch to any version of the software.

Is there a script or 3rd-party app or any other sort of batch-processing approach that would hasten my completion of this potentially-monotonous job?

Thanks in advance for any insight you can offer!

By: singingfish

singingfish — Tue, 16 Oct 2012 14:16:55 -0800

Presumably a bit of VBA can do it. From a bit of googling I found the following relevant pages:

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/706516/opening-activating-word-documents-in-a-vba-macro

http://www.vbaexpress.com/kb/getarticle.php?kb_id=459

By: lampshade

lampshade — Tue, 16 Oct 2012 16:32:41 -0800

Sobolsoft - MS Word Add Headers and Footers To Multiple Docs - $29.95

I did test it a while back and it looked good, but I have not had need for it, so I haven't bought it. However, if i needed to do what you are talking about, I would purchase a license.

SobolSoft.com/WordAddHeader
sobolsoft.com/wordaddheader

There is a free trial claim, but it really isn't. The demo version limits you to only one document, so it is sort of pointless. However, what I was able to test seemed to confirm that it worked well as opposed to some other softwares out there. (like HotHotSoftware which resulted in all sorts of errors)

As far as the VBA solutions, I am sure you can get one to work, but they seem to require a bit of fiddling to get the paths right and such. Along with singingfish's link upthread, here is another that seems to have promise and it is shareware. I tested that one a bit too, but didn't really work with it to any large degree.

Process_Batch_Folder_Addin
gregmaxey.mvps.org/word_tip_pages/process_batch_folder_addin.html

By: Simon Barclay

Simon Barclay — Tue, 16 Oct 2012 19:14:52 -0800

Do you know programming at all? This is almost definitely doable in VBA, with the right commands.

First, to learn how to add what you want for a single document's header, record a new macro before you insert the header, then do what you normally do to put it in, and then stop recording. When you go into VBA (press Alt-F11) you will see the code that adds a header for a single document. Then, what you need to do is add code around the code created by recording the macro to repeat this for all the documents; you'll need commands like "dir" and "while [...] loop".

Does any of this make sense? If yes, I can try to help you through some of the rest. If not, you'll probably need to buy software to do this (as mentioned earlier).