Solved Word 10: merging .doc files representing odd/even pages

[steinspecht]

Hi
after scanning and OCR-processing papers I ended up with a number of Word documents
representing odd and even numbered pages. They are stored in separate folders.
Unfortunately, my scanner cannot turn pages.

Now I would like to merge these documents into one Word document, such as:

starting with page 1:
odd\doc1.doc
merging
even\doc1.doc, page 2
merging
odd\doc2.doc, page 3
merging
even\doc2.doc, page 4
etc.

Could do it manually, but there are 200 or so pages

A macro would be fantastic, but I have no idea how to go about that.

Can somebody help?

Thanks.
Steinspecht

 

[Neutron16]

I think it is doable without a macro.
Here is a trick.

Open default blank document. Click Insert menu on Office ribbon.
There is an OBJECT button on it. But you need to click on little arrow beside it and then select TEXT FROM FILE.
Then navigate to your master folder with all those subfolders with documents. Click F3 key on your keyboard and start typing
*.doc*
After that your computer will start to search all documents in subfolders. That might take a while depending on the number of documents. Then you need to right click inside that window and select in right click menu - View- Details, Sort by - Folder path, Ascending.
When all documents will show up in that window, make a keyboard shortcut - Ctrl+A to select ALL files and click INSERT button.

You can also sort by date, if documents were created one after another page by page. But sorting by folder path seems better to me.

 

[steinspecht]

Thx

Thanks, Neutron.

As it stands, I was aware of this. However for some reason I get no search results on subdirectories, and used by itself, the Word function you described will allow only sequentially to include files. What I need to do is to inculde them alternating.

Imagine two stacks of papers left and right. You form a third by grabbing one page from the left stack, then one from the right stack, and repeat until there are none left on either side. You end up with one stack in the middle containing the pages in the right sequence.

I used to program a lot in the distant past, the logic is simple, but I have no nerve to dig into VB to write a program.

There seems to be no simple solution to this. I suppose professional scanner/OCR systems will let you do it, either by turning pages physically, or by merging the resulitng odd/even scanned and OCRd files into one.

Anyway, I solved the problem by hand in about 20 minutes - anyone interested can ask me at [email address removed].
Thanks again for your time!

Steinspecht

 

[Neutron16]

steinspecht! yeah, I have got an idea about what are you doing. That is why I proposed a search inside Insert file window. It worked for me. That is strange that search did not work for you. Likely, this folder was not indexed and you might wanted to wait longer.

I think there are some people who interested how have you solved that problem manually. Could you be so kind to post it here? And if I were you, I would have deleted email from previous post. Forum is open for indexing and spammers will get your email in a matter of hours.

 

[steinspecht]

Well I don't know either why the search doesn't recurse subdirectories. I wish there was a pop-up window with all the options for advanced search.

In the end I generated a batch file (.bat) by first starting cmd to produce a list of files:
dir \odd_pages\*.doc > odd.dat
dir \even_pages\*.doc > even.ddat
copy odd.dat+even.dat mybatch.bat


Edited mybatch.bat to keep only the file names, then created a three-column table reading:
copy \odd_pages\file001.doc ..\merged\file001.doc
copy \even_pages\file001.doc ..\merged\file002.doc
copy \odd_pages\file002.doc ..\merged\file003.doc
copy \even_pages\file002.doc ..\merged\file004.doc
etc.

then saved the whole thing as text-only, editing again to have each copy command on one line.

In the end I ran mybatch.bat and voilá.

In Word, I inserted the whole list of files into a first blank page.

It worked for 70 pages or so, but I have another set totalling about 200 pages, which is WORK.

So I'm still interested in someone helping me with a decent .bat file or macro...

Regards,
Steinspecht

 

[Neutron16]

Control Panel - Folder Options - Include subfolders in search results...
Is this option checked?

 

[Neutron16]

To recreate your situation, I have created a folder named STUFF and subfolders with following files:
STUFF\1\doc1.docx
STUFF\2\doc1.docx
STUFF\3\doc2.docx
STUFF\4\doc2.docx

Then I have downloaded this freeware program 1-4a-rename.
I have started it and opened my folder in it. Then pressed F2 for Expert mode.
Checkmarked Subdir levels.
Checkmarked ADD LEAD and then checkmarked NEW.

At the end I have got this:
STUFF\1\doc001.docx
STUFF\2\doc002.docx
STUFF\3\doc003.docx
STUFF\4\doc004.docx

Now you can put them in one folder and merge.

Please make a backup copy before you try on real work files!

 

[steinspecht]

Subdirs are included in search as per Control Panel.

Thanks for the hint about 1-4a-rename.! Looks neat and very useful!

Meanwhile I got this, which seems quite a clever usage of SEQ, it is in German, but the step-by-step procedure is self-evident. Lisa is a certified Microsoft trainer.

Word10: einzelne Dokumente alternierend zusammenfügen - Microsoft Community[FONT=&quot]http://answers.microsoft.com/thread/640040ed-413b-46c2-b1d8-eea241d6eabf
[/FONT]

Again thanks for your support and time!
Andrei (Steinspecht)