I was recently asked to provide an way to batch process a set of Microsoft Word documents that are still saved in the older .doc format to the modern .docx format and I wasn’t able to find a script that did exactly what I wanted so ended up writing one for the client. Coding isn’t my forte given it is not something I commonly perform so I thought I’d write this blog post for anyone who may be looking for something similar as well as have it for myself to reference in the future.
The following demonstrates how to open .doc documents in a specified folder and save them as .docx.
1. Begin by launching Word, click on the Developer tab and click on Visual Basic:
2. Click on the Insert tab and then Module:
3. Paste the following code into the module:
Sub UpdateOldDocToDocx()
Application.ScreenUpdating = False
'Disable privacy settings warning
Application.DisplayAlerts = False
Dim oldDocument As Document
Dim strPassword As String, strFile As String, strFolder, strDestFolder As String
Dim passwordRow As Integer
strFolder = "C:\Word\"
strFile = Dir(strFolder & "*.doc", vbNormal)
strDestFolder = "C:\Word\Upgraded\"
' BEGIN LOOPING THROUGH OLD WORD DOCUMENTS
While strFile <> ""
Set oldDocument = Documents.Open(FileName:=strFolder & strFile)
'OPEN WORD, SAVE AND CLOSE
With oldDocument
.SaveAs2 FileName:=strDestFolder & strFile & "x", FileFormat:=wdFormatXMLDocument, CompatibilityMode:=15
.Close
End With
strFile = Dir()
Wend
End Sub
6. Update the variables to desired values:
strFolder: Where the source files are
strDestFolder: Where the destination password protected files should be
7. Proceed to run the module by clicking on the play button or F5:
8. The upgraded files should be present in the defined directory: