Printing Personalized Copies of a Document

Mahmud asked for a way to print personalized copies of a document. He started with a list of names in a regular text file, one per line, and he wanted to print one copy of the current Word document for each of those names. Further, he wanted the person's name placed in the header of the document.

The process to perform such a task is fairly straightforward: open the text file, grab a name, put it in the header, and then print the document. Another name is grabbed, and the process is repeated until there are no more names in the file. The following macro implements such a process:

Sub PutNamesInHeader()
    Dim sName As String

    Open "c:/names.txt" For Input As #5
    Do While Not EOF(5)
        ' get the name
        Line Input #5, sName

        ActiveWindow.ActivePane.View.SeekView = _
          wdSeekCurrentPageHeader
        Selection.WholeStory
        Selection.Delete
        Selection.TypeText Text:=sName

        ActiveWindow.ActivePane.View.SeekView = _
          wdSeekMainDocument
        ActiveDocument.PrintOut
    Loop

    Close #5

    ActiveWindow.ActivePane.View.SeekView = _
      wdSeekCurrentPageHeader
    Selection.WholeStory
    Selection.Delete
    ActiveWindow.ActivePane.View.SeekView = _
      wdSeekMainDocument
End Sub

The tricky part of the macro is using the .SeekView property to specify which story in the document you want to work with. As implemented here, the .SeekView property is used repeatedly to switch between the header area and the main document. After the loop (grabbing names and printing) is completed, the header area is cleared and the .SeekView is switched back to the main document.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (152) applies to Microsoft Word 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003. You can find a version of this tip for the ribbon interface of Word (Word 2007 and later) here: Printing Personalized Copies of a Document.