Using Sequential Document Serial Numbers

If you have a need to create serial numbers in your documents and they are very simple in nature, you can do so using a macro. This approach to serial numbers is great if your serial numbers are sequential (1, 2, 3, etc.) or regular in their incidence (3, 5, 7, etc.).

To begin, you should enter the macro that will control the change of the serial number and the printing of your document. You can use the following macro:

Sub MySerial()
    Dim rngSerialLocation As Range
    Dim intSerialNum As Integer
    Dim strSerialNum As String
    Dim docCurrent As Document
    Dim intNumCopies As Integer
    Dim intCount As Integer

    ' set ref to current active doc
    Set docCurrent = Application.ActiveDocument
    ' set ref to the bookmarked serial number
    Set rngSerialLocation = docCurrent.Bookmarks("Serial").Range

    ' get the starting number
    intSerialNum = Val(rngSerialLocation.Text)
    ' get the number of copies required
    intNumCopies = Val(InputBox$("How many Copies?", _
      "Print Serialized", "1"))

    For intCount = 1 To intNumCopies
        ' print the document
        docCurrent.PrintOut Range:=wdPrintAllDocument
        ' increment the serial number
        intSerialNum = intSerialNum + 1
        ' put into formatted version
        strSerialNum = Format(intSerialNum, "00000")
        ' stuff into proper place
        rngSerialLocation.Text = strSerialNum
    Next intCount

    ' reset the bookmark, since the updating procedure
    ' wipes out the old one
    docCurrent.Bookmarks.Add Name:="Serial", _
      Range:=rngSerialLocation
End Sub

There is only one prerequisite to using the macro: you need to make sure that your document contains a bookmark named Serial. This bookmark should reference the serial number in your document, as you want it to appear in the first printed document. (When you are through running the macro, you can save the document and the serial number will be ready for the next time you want to use it.)

The macro also assumes that your serial number consists primarily of some numeric value that changes with each iteration. You can modify the incrementing of the serial number, as well as its formatting, in the For...Next loop within the macro.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (1747) 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: Using Sequential Document Serial Numbers.