This add-in is intended to work with Word from version 2002 to 2007. For earlier Word versions (97 & 2000) the macros included later on this page should provide an alternative means of splitting merge documents.

The add-in is designed to save a letter merge document to separate document files for each record. It does this by creating a new document for each record. This works best when the new documents are created from the same template as the merge document, and includes an option to select the template from which the document was created. If for some reason, that template is not available, then the function creates documents using the normal template.

In some circumstances, this will result in documents that bear only a passing resemblance to the merge document. To minimise that possibility, the add-in also includes a macro that will create a template from the merge document and a copy of that merge document with the new template attached, which should be used to run the merge in place of the original merge document. The original merge document is unchanged.

This function is activated from a toolbar button. The toolbar should be displayed the first time you run Word with the add-in present.

In Word 2007 the toolbar will be displayed from the Add-Ins tab on the ribbon.

In Word 2002/3 it will be displayed in the document space. If you don't require the function you can close the toolbar, by clicking the X on the title bar of the toolbar

When run, the macro displays the following dialog:

If there is no document loaded or the document loaded is a template, you will get an error message and the application will quit.

or

or if following the Step by Step Mail Merge Wizard

Whichever Word version is employed, you are then presented with the usual means of choosing which records to merge. Complete that and click 'OK'

The macro code then takes over to offer the choice of merging to separate documents or continuing with a merge to a single document.

If you choose separate documents, you are offered the list of available fields from your data file (here shown from Outlook). If the field contains the path to the folder in which you wish the files to be saved, check the checkbox. If not, enter the path in the dialog box where indicated. The macro retains this information for next time in a file called Settings.txt which is saved in the root of the C: drive.

If a record does not have an entry in the field chosen above, a warning message is displayed which shows the content of the record in question and provides the option to name the document associated with this record or use the default name NoNameNumber#

The add-in creates a series of new documents. It works best if these new documents are created using the template from which the merge document was created. If that template is not available, the new documents are created using the normal template. You can, if you prefer, use the normal template to create the documents, by un-checking the check box shown checked in the illustration above, or run the separate macro from the toolbar, as detailed earlier on this page, to create a version of the document c/w attached matching template.

If you click 'Yes' in the above dialog, the following screen will take your filename input.

There is no need to add .DOC to your choice of filename.

For the purpose of demonstration I used the following data file, which has a single field 'Name' with one missing and one duplicated filename.

This produces the following files. Note the results for the duplicated and missing files.

Acrobat 6

Acrobat 7

Acrobat 8

If you create a merge letter and merge to a new document without accepting the option to split the merge, you get one long document with each of the individual 'letters' separated by a section break.

It is simple enough to print an individual 'letter' or range of letters by addressing the sections in the print dialog as in the illustration below

Having merged to a single document, it is still possible to split to separate documents, with the use of a macro. To this end Doug Robbins also came up with the following, to which I have taken the liberty of making a couple of small changes.

The macro splits the document and files each sub document into the indicated path - shown here in blue. The files are named by date and sequence number, with the date format from the mask - also shown in blue. Both these variables can easily be changed to reflect personal preferences - nor should it be too difficult for those with vba programming skills and inclination to modify the code to prompt for a name and/or path.

Sub Splitter()
' splitter Macro
' Macro created 16-08-98 by Doug Robbins to save each letter created by a
' mailmerge as a separate file.
' With minor modifications by Graham Mayor 10-02-03
Dim mask As String
Selection.EndKey Unit:=wdStory
Letters = Selection.Information(wdActiveEndSectionNumber)
mask = "ddMMyy"
Selection.HomeKey Unit:=wdStory
Counter = 1
While Counter < Letters
    DocName = "D:\My Documents\Temp\Workgroup\" & Format(Date, mask) _

    & " " & LTrim$(Str$(Counter)) & ".doc"
    ActiveDocument.Sections.First.Range.Cut
    Documents.add
    With Selection
        .Paste
        .EndKey Unit:=wdStory
        .MoveLeft Unit:=wdCharacter, Count:=1
        .Delete Unit:=wdCharacter, Count:=1
    End With

    ActiveDocument.SaveAs FileName:=DocName, FileFormat:=wdFormatDocument
    ActiveWindow.Close
    Counter = Counter + 1
Wend
End Sub

As an alternative, the following macro provides the opportunity to provide the fixed portion of the filename and to change the path of the saved files:

Sub SplitMerge()
' splitter Macro
' Macro created 16-08-98 by Doug Robbins to save each letter created by a

' mailmerge as a separate file.
' with modifications by Graham Mayor 16-06-03 & 08-10-04
Dim Title As String
Dim Default As String
Dim MyText As String
Dim MyName As Variant
Dim MyPath As String
Selection.EndKey Unit:=wdStory
Letters = Selection.Information(wdActiveEndSectionNumber)
Selection.HomeKey Unit:=wdStory
Counter = 1
Default = "Merged"
MyText = "Enter a filename. Long filenames may be used."
Title = "File Name"
MyName = InputBox(MyText, Title, Default)
If MyName = "" Then
    End
End If
Default = "D:\My Documents\Test\"
Title = "Path"
MyText = "Enter path"
MyPath = InputBox(MyText, Title, Default)
If MyPath = "" Then
    End
End If
While Counter < Letters
    Application.ScreenUpdating = False
    Docname = MyPath & LTrim$(Str$(Counter)) & " " & MyName & ".doc"
    ActiveDocument.Sections.First.Range.Cut
    Documents.Add
    With Selection
        .Paste
        .EndKey Unit:=wdStory
        .MoveLeft Unit:=wdCharacter, Count:=1
        .Delete Unit:=wdCharacter, Count:=1
    End With
    ActiveDocument.SaveAs FileName:=Docname, FileFormat:=wdFormatDocument
    ActiveWindow.Close
    Counter = Counter + 1
    Application.ScreenUpdating = True
Wend
End Sub
 

Note that as a merge document may contain hundreds of letters, this macro can take a while to run, as each document has to be opened and saved, but you should end up with a folder full of files as shown below (derived from the first code example):

This is easier said than done, as once the document is merged the data file no longer forms part of the merge letters. There are a couple of approaches that may be considered, but the one I favour requires the field to be used as the filenames to be added to the top of the merge letter on a line of their own. When merged, the fieldnames will be those first lines of the merged letters. The macro then removes the lines to restore each merge letter to its required format during the splitting process.

Sub SplitMergeLetter()
' splitter Macro modified to save individual letters with

' information from data source. The filename data must be added to

' the top of the merge letter - see web article.

Selection.EndKey Unit:=wdStory
Letters = Selection.Information(wdActiveEndSectionNumber)
Selection.HomeKey Unit:=wdStory
Counter = 1
While Counter < Letters
    Application.ScreenUpdating = False
    With Selection

        .HomeKey Unit:=wdStory
        .EndKey Unit:=wdLine, Extend:=wdExtend
        .MoveLeft Unit:=wdCharacter, Count:=1, Extend:=wdExtend

IMPORTANT!! All the macros featured on this page (and the add-in) create their new split documents by using the default normal.dot template as a basis for the documents. If the merge source document has been created from a different template, with different margins or page size, the resulting split documents are not going to match the layout of the merge document. To overcome this issue, create an empty template, by deleting the content of the merge source document and save it as a template. Locate the line:

Documents.Add

and address the template as follows: