Batch convert Word documents to .pdf files in Word 2007 and later

This is brilliant. "Faster" posted some vbs macro code in 2011 which uses Word 2007 and later to convert all files in a folder to .pdf files (or other formats, even on earlier versions of Word).

A few cautions: the original files are not modified, but the generated .pdf files are put in a sibling folder to the one you select. For instance, if you provide the path c:\docs\wordfiles, the pdfs will be created in c:\docs\wordfilesconverted. Also, make sure there is nothing but Word files in the folder you select, because it will try to convert any files it finds in the given path. Fortunately, it doesn't recurse into subfolders, so you can dump non-word documents into a temporary subfolder before you run the conversion.

For posterity, here is the code:

Option Explicit Sub ChangeDocsToTxtOrRTFOrHTML() 'with export to PDF in Word 2007     Dim fs As Object     Dim oFolder As Object     Dim tFolder As Object     Dim oFile As Object     Dim strDocName As String     Dim intPos As Integer     Dim locFolder As String     Dim fileType As String     On Error Resume Next     locFolder = InputBox("Enter the folder path to DOCs", "File Conversion", "C:\myDocs")     Select Case Application.Version         Case Is < 12             Do                 fileType = UCase(InputBox("Change DOC to TXT, RTF, HTML", "File Conversion", "TXT"))             Loop Until (fileType = "TXT" Or fileType = "RTF" Or fileType = "HTML")         Case Is >= 12             Do                 fileType = UCase(InputBox("Change DOC to TXT, RTF, HTML or PDF(2007+ only)", "File Conversion", "TXT"))             Loop Until (fileType = "TXT" Or fileType = "RTF" Or fileType = "HTML" Or fileType = "PDF")     End Select     Application.ScreenUpdating = False     Set fs = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")     Set oFolder = fs.GetFolder(locFolder)     Set tFolder = fs.CreateFolder(locFolder & "Converted")     Set tFolder = fs.GetFolder(locFolder & "Converted")     For Each oFile In oFolder.Files         Dim d As Document         Set d = Application.Documents.Open(oFile.Path)         strDocName = ActiveDocument.Name         intPos = InStrRev(strDocName, ".")         strDocName = Left(strDocName, intPos - 1)         ChangeFileOpenDirectory tFolder         Select Case fileType         Case Is = "TXT"             strDocName = strDocName & ".txt"             ActiveDocument.SaveAs FileName:=strDocName, FileFormat:=wdFormatText         Case Is = "RTF"             strDocName = strDocName & ".rtf"             ActiveDocument.SaveAs FileName:=strDocName, FileFormat:=wdFormatRTF         Case Is = "HTML"             strDocName = strDocName & ".html"             ActiveDocument.SaveAs FileName:=strDocName, FileFormat:=wdFormatFilteredHTML         Case Is = "PDF"             strDocName = strDocName & ".pdf"             ' *** Word 2007 users - remove the apostrophe at the start of the next line ***             'ActiveDocument.ExportAsFixedFormat OutputFileName:=strDocName, ExportFormat:=wdExportFormatPDF                     End Select         d.Close         ChangeFileOpenDirectory oFolder     Next oFile     Application.ScreenUpdating = True End Sub

Activate the Developer tab in Word, then open up the vbs console (or create a macro) and paste this code in (make sure the lines don't wordwrap like they do on this page), then run it. Assuming you're running Word 2007 or later, be sure to delete the apostrophe where indicated.

For more details, check out the original post.

While we're on the subject, may I further recommend PDFbinder as a free program which allows you to merge many pdf files into a single multi-page file. And also Compress PDF, a free online service which compresses your .pdf file sizes.

~Till next time!