how can I merge multiple word documents?

Well right after submitting the above, I went to close Word and found the combined doc I wasn't able to find earlier. I think maybe Word was already running in another screen space when I first was running the workflow and so the newly created Word doc opened there, invisible to me (I didn't even think Word was running). Either way the above addition, where I've saved the new doc to the desktop will prevent the possibility of that kind of confusion in the future.

Matthew, thank you so much! This helped me immeasurably! The one issue I had was after I created the workflow, the new document didn't hold the formatting and placed text on top of text. I saved each file as a pdf and then combined, which worked like a dream. Thank you for taking the time to explain this. Greatly appreciated.

This worked really well but I would just mention that there is a little box to check in the workflow window for "Ask for Finder Items" that allows you to select multiple items in the finder. If you don't check it, you won't be able to shift-click or command-click to select multiple MS Word files when you run the workflow. It took me a few minutes to figure out why I was having trouble. Just a minor addition/correction to your otherwise good directions.

Hello Mattew,

thanks to your reply to this question I was able to generate a new document combining 7 word files. However, there were problems maintaining the document' style. The files were books chapters with notes at the end of each chapter but he new document converted all notes to end notes (end of the manuscript). It also changed the font and style of footnotes. Is there any way to control this? Thank you in advance!

I see the "Ask for Finder" but I do not see the "Combine Word Documents". I have "Combine PDF pages" & "Combine Text Files" Any idea how to install the "Cobine word doc" action. If so where do I go to do it? Any assistance is greatly appreciated.

Hi Matthew,

I am new to MacBook Pro...been using it for a year now, I just tried the above but got stuck at 'From the Document Library drag in Combine Word Documents', I can't find the 'Combine Word Documents'.

I am running macOS Sierra Version 10.12.4, also I have Microsoft Word for Mac 2017 loaded.

I am however able to follow this instruction; Now when you run your workflow it will first ask you to choose the Word documents you want to combine. Shift click or Command click to select multiple documents. Click the choose button and Automator should complete the task creating a new Word document with all the other document inside of it. My understanding is that, once I select the 'Choose Button' after I have selected the documents, Automator will automatically combine my two word documents into a single document?

Any help will be deeply appreciated.

Regards

Tivpine

Hey Matt,

I think I was editing my last post as you were replying--did you see, I also tried combining files I know to be recent Word docs?

This is a really helpful solution Matt, but is there a way I can get them to combine in a specific order?

Thanks for this, worked perfectly...

Thanks heaps for this Matt, it worked well for my 70 chapter merge into one master doc, with adjoas's tweak. Saved a lot of human-error-prone manual labour. I am much obliged.

Matthew Morgan, you're a ******* rockstar! I could kiss you right now!

You are still saving lifes with your answer Matt. Thank you very much.

This is AWESOME! And people should note selecting the "multiple documents" option. In one move, 13 files merged. Genius!!!! I did it one by one by one....

In the new Word, here's how I found to do it.

Insert >> Text (Almost all the way to the right) >> Object >> Text from file

So amazing, thank you!