Split a Mail Merged document into SEPARATE documents with custom file names [No Coding]

[@xhantilomzikembe466]

Hi Nicos, do you know why the individual generated documents loose the format (images) after being generated. my original document had images and branding then after doing the individual document splitting then I lost the formatting.

[@Saito8496]

A big thank you. I know this process a long time ago (Office 2010), so your video is a big help.

[@paphitisn]

i am glad this helped. If you are the one generating the merged document, you will prefer this method: kzbin.info/www/bejne/hIfOXouAlJl-btEsi=RdHmeTQSqqpCrCu_ much better solution

[@NekoMouser]

My merged document had different headers and footers every so often (in your case, say each student had a header with the name and date of the class they were in, the first 4 being in "Chemistry 101: Fall 2024" and the next 5 being in "Literature 232: Spring 2025," etc). This way of splitting leaves the header and footer information in the "master document" and the split documents lose that (along with a lot of formatting). Is this really just a work around using the "master document" concept--that these individual files can all be edited separately and then fed back into the master document--because Word somehow doesn't have any native function or capability for users to say "Split this document into multiple documents after every 3 pages" or "...after the following page numbers," for example? How is there no way to simply break a document up in 2 clicks?

[@paphitisn]

If you ate the one merging the document then use the following method. Once setup you can merge with a couple of clicks. kzbin.info/www/bejne/hIfOXouAlJl-btEsi=RRKjppsTM7JSUZdJ

[@tuneawg657]

Hello Nic! Thanks for the useful tutorial! I have maybe a silly question. Is possible to keep reference stiles when splitting or merging? I split the thesis but I lost the reference's style and format. Thaks!

[@paphitisn]

Not at all a silly question. This method is to split a document which has already been merged. If you are the one merging the document then i suggest you use this method. It should keep the reference styles for you kzbin.info/www/bejne/hIfOXouAlJl-btEsi=WmQvK48J7i9XEq5M

[@fi-9435]

Hi Nicos! Thank you for the video, do you have any samples that could retain the headers and footers?

[@paphitisn]

Try this kzbin.info/www/bejne/roTNk3ibZ9CKa6Msi=U0404O2_f4MywHG9

[@searonthornton8419]

Hello! Thank you so much for this great idea! I’ve followed the tutorial but I am getting an error message right at the end when I click create ‘Cannot create a subdocument within a table’. Any idea why this might be?

[@paphitisn]

Hi, not sure what your issue. However this method should only be used if you were given the merged document. If you have the master document and the data source and you created the merged document which you now want to separate to individual personalised documents, i suggest you use this method instead. kzbin.info/www/bejne/hIfOXouAlJl-btE Much better method, more versatile, can create individualised docs in seconds once you add the macro.

[@qualitymedical7156]

HOW DO YOU THEN SET THE FIELD NAME TO BE The name of the documents because here its saving as title

[@GregRyerson]

When I click "create" I can see that it wants to create separate documents, but it doesn't. I'm getting the sense that it has something to do with being synced to One Drive. How do I circumvent this?

[@paphitisn]

Do not use a synced folder like onedrive as your target folder to create the files. Change the target folders to a filder on the desktop or any other llocal location whic does not require elevated user access. Your documents folder will also work.

[@abolajishiwoku32]

Hi. I just came across this solution and when trying to implement this, i keep getting an error message "the selection does not consis of heading levels

[@paphitisn]

Not sure what your issue could be. However, if you are generating the merged file and then trying to split the document i suggest you use this method instead: kzbin.info/www/bejne/hIfOXouAlJl-btEsi=BXQfrQi6h-M-kPDR

[@Sweetcakes3101]

I cannot get this to work - why? My document is 2 pages, with Heading 1 at the top and the rest of the document is in Body Text - I go to View > Outline > select the whole document > Show Document > Create - and nothing happens ... help! :-(

[@paphitisn]

Hi, this can be frustrating. If you are generating the merged documents then use this method instead. kzbin.info/www/bejne/hIfOXouAlJl-btEsi=z0JNCGsgfOfv6uqP it is way better and works great providing you are careful and you follow the steps. Let me know how this goes.

[@ColleenClark-k9o]

Thank you for this but wondering if anyone else is having the issue where the documents are not splitting and instead a document with hyperlinks is created.

[@paphitisn]

Not that i have heard of. You will prefer this method if you are the one doing the mail merge kzbin.info/www/bejne/hIfOXouAlJl-btEsi=L5d1NYXsJXJKs1sg

[@skimbus]

Good instructions. I remember I knew that a while ago but I forgot them. I could not include the name of the folder at the beginning and as a result I included my desired title "Party invitation for " and then I have changed the colour of the line to white. As such, it did not show on file. Imperfection 1: After I have performed the outline process, all the resulted documents have a "section break" at the end of the last word...and then another blank page. I s there any way to remove that section end + blank page? Imperfection 2: After the outline process, all the resulted documents have their lines at 1,5 distance instead of 1 in the original document. Is there any way to keep the original formating?

[@paphitisn]

This method should only be used as a last resort if you have been given the merged document and you want to split it. If you have the master document and data source use this method: kzbin.info/www/bejne/hIfOXouAlJl-btEsi=0MR0s2Fzg3WHDzhJ

[@maureenflavion7443]

I have tried this a number of times and I can't locate where the individual files are saving. I have saved the merged doc to a folder first. We use one drive at work and I wonder if that's the issue, not on my local drive? Before I watch your 45 min coding video thought I'd ask if there are other options when on a cloud one drive thanks !

[@paphitisn]

You can save the files in any location you want, even onedrive if you have it synced with your pc. You have to make sure that you specify the location in the vb code and that the folders exist in the path yiu specify. You will have to watch the video on the code.

[@PallaviGupta-t6q]

Hi, this trick doesn't work when the document has a header and footer. Can you please help with a solution?

[@paphitisn]

If you are generating the merged document use this method instead. kzbin.info/www/bejne/l4S4eYCCn9mCrdUsi=e4fpdwYGJyO23aWI

[@markdtp]

Hi Nicos - Great tutorial - thank you. The only problem I have with this technique is that although my document should only be one page per student, it is creating a second blank page for some strange reason - any ideas why?

[@paphitisn]

i would make my margins smaller so that the document fits better in the work area. This should solve the issue. if you are generating the merged files then you may prefer this method: kzbin.info/www/bejne/hIfOXouAlJl-btEsi=eEVd4Kebv8mnowPI

[@jillgough2062]

Thanks for the tutorial!! It is really going to help me speed up part of my work! Have you come across the new individual files ended up with a different format? I've tried this a few times and the new files all have 1.5 line spacing and change font from my original document that has single spacing. Is there a template setting I need to change somewhere that I'm not seeing?

[@paphitisn]

No i have not. However if you are oftenly working with merged documents, you may like this method instead kzbin.info/www/bejne/hIfOXouAlJl-btE Let me know how it goes.

[@gheorghestoianov524]

I have the same problem. Have you found a solution?

[@mrslnathan9005]

This is brilliant. Do you know any way that I can get more characters merging at once. I have a lot of text in each cell and it seems to be cutting some of it off. I have looked online at creating a dummy column but that doesn't seem to be doing it. Any ideas please?

[@paphitisn]

Check this out. If you are the one generating the merged documents then this is for you kzbin.info/www/bejne/hIfOXouAlJl-btEsi=XbIZiQTP8bhFYIFb

[@mrslnathan9005]

I am but isn't this video the easier way of doing that? And will this solve the problem of not showing all the text in the word document that is in the excel document ? While I've never split the files before I've used mail merge regularly for reports and never had it not import all the text from each cell.

[@paphitisn]

​@@mrslnathan9005 this method, the simple one, is useful if someone else did the merge, gave you the merged document and you want to split it. The other method is way better and used if you are the one doing the merge. Infact once you set it up it is easier than the first,, one click. Esse tially the results are exactly the same as how you normally do a merge with the only diggerence that instead of 1 long document, it produces separate documents. If you use mail merge then this 2nd method ks definatly for you and well worth your time learning it. Read the comments to see.

[@RaimelJaniceSangroni]

I followed the instructions to a tee . .When I click "Create', a message pops up "the selection does not consist of heading levels'. I have a header in the document but hide it. I tried the heading type in header and then removed, still the message shoes up. Am I missing another step?

[@paphitisn]

Make sure you are using the default Heading 1 from the styles, not one the you created or modified. If you can not get it working then here is a different tutorial with a more advanced method to merge directly to individual documents and PDFs with more flexibility. kzbin.info/www/bejne/hIfOXouAlJl-btE

[@diaschulze]

After changing the Style of your header, you might need to do this: Open Outline view and select the header in your document. Right under the Outlining tab will be a dropdown menu and chances are it will say "Body Text" - you'll need to change it to "Level 1" (to be clear, this designates it as the first level in the Outlining tab, and has nothing to do with Level 1 in the Styles menu). Or alternatively: Just be sure you are actually using Style "Heading 1" and not "1 Header" which will show up first on the menu and confuse you into picking the wrong style. That was my mistake! Your header can actually be ANY style as long as it doesn't show up in a bunch of other places in the document, and that you go through the process I described to set it as the first level.

[@lien355]

Firstly thank you so much for your video; I have a question that it doesn't work with special character like _ or ., how can I deal with that?

[@FINNHANN810]

When I click create, it just keeps saying “the selection does not consist of heading levels.” But it does and it’s highlighted. Anyone else run into this issue?

[@paphitisn]

Make sure you are using the Default Heading 1 not other headings. Also you may want to have a look at this solution if you want to merge to separate, personalised pdf documents kzbin.info/www/bejne/hIfOXouAlJl-btE

[@mmsmith042]

Just so you know, after HOURS of trying to figure out why this won't work, I moved the bulk merge file OFF OneDrive and onto my local C and now it works *headthud

[@paphitisn]

Great to hear that it worked for you. Thanks for coming back to let us know how you resolved your issue

[@Deiniera]

Thanks for this tip! I saw this and now it works for me!!

[@HudoHudHudec]

in my case header is not taken into individual document and one empty page is always added. Any suggestions?

[@paphitisn]

It maybe that your merged fields ar pushing your document into a second page. Try increasing your margins or make the dicument smaller. You may preffer to use this method to create your individualized merged docs. kzbin.info/www/bejne/hIfOXouAlJl-btE

[@jeanblaine3182]

Thank you for your video. It was so helpful! I've watched several videos on this topic and yours was the easiest to follow. Have you had an issue with the merge creating an extra page at the end of the individual saved documents? I checked and have no extra page breaks, etc. Is there a fix for this? Thank you!

[@paphitisn]

I am glad you found this usefull. I have not experienced this. Maybe your document length reaches the last line and when adding the heading it pushes the document down to the next page. Have you tried with a short document? I have another tutorial which shows you how to merge directly to separate, personalised files, both to word doc and pdf. Will send you a link.

[@paphitisn]

I am glad you found it usefull. I have not experienced this.

[@paphitisn]

Have a look at this kzbin.info/www/bejne/hIfOXouAlJl-btE

[@jeanblaine3182]

@@paphitisn I tried the merge with a shorter document. No luck. Still adds a blank page at the end. Upon googling the issue I found others with the same problem but no definitive solution. I will, however, continue to use your method because overall it worked great! Thank you again. I appreciate your time and expertise!

[@paphitisn]

@@jeanblaine3182 have a look at the tutorial i sent you in previous reply. I will have a look at your issue and if i come up with something i will let you know

[@nkulifakdash6845]

Hi Nicos, thank you, this helped. Just wondering how to navigate because l need to put the date at the top but obviously with the date l cannot split the documents properly

[@paphitisn]

If you are the one doing the merging, look at this method instead. kzbin.info/www/bejne/hIfOXouAlJl-btEsi=QaCJh00cV6u0Jogv

[@fiabenji]

Omg this was super helpful. This may be a silly question but what if the mail merge doc was saved as PDF? Can you split pdf or this only works in Word?

[@paphitisn]

Glad you found jt useful. No that will not work, BUT, if you want to merge to separate pdf documents watch this tutorial. A bit more tricky but once you get this working it is fantastic and will merge to .doc and .pdf kzbin.info/www/bejne/hIfOXouAlJl-btE

[@hjoffe]

I works but included an additional extra blank page in the end of each document ... how to solved it ?

[@paphitisn]

when you merge some of your merge fields may be bigger than the merge code and is causing a line break. To solve this either reduce the margin sizes so that you have more page availability or make sure that your document is not close to the bottom margin so that it has some space at the end.

[@staciabelove6097]

@@paphitisn That didn't work for me. I've made the margins as small as possible and there are no extra rows or returns. Still getting the extra page.

[@paphitisn]

@@staciabelove6097if you are merging the document first and it is close to the end of the page after merge it will generate a blank page. Test this by deleting some of the document so it is quite a bit less than a page and see if you get a blank page. If you are merging the document and it is not an already merged document there is a better solution for you. I will send you the link to the tutorial.

[@paphitisn]

@@staciabelove6097 try this method. It is way better to produce ipersonalized individual documents through mail merge. kzbin.info/www/bejne/hIfOXouAlJl-btE

[@agussugianto119]

Thanks for the super helpful video. Do you know the alternative for the name of file which is using number? For Example WO12-1. Is there a way to change that ? thank you

[@paphitisn]

NO as that is an incrementing file name number if your file name is the same. If the file names are different then it will not add that number. If you want more customization of the file name then watch this tutorial as it will produce the personalized docs and pdfs from the mail merge directly. kzbin.info/www/bejne/hIfOXouAlJl-btE

[@LeanneWoodhouse-pd3eu]

Thank you for this great video. It was very helpful. The one challenge I am getting is that it's saving the subdocumenets to the INetCache folder in Windows, not the original folder with the main document. Is there a way to change that?

[@paphitisn]

Are you sure that you saved the merged document in the folder where you want the split documents to be saved. So the process is the master document with the merged fields produces a merged document which you want to split. You must first save that merged document in the location where you want to save the split documents first. This is indicated at time 6:04. for your information there is another way to merge directly to individual documents which is more functional but a bit more difficult to implement, the tutorial is here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/hIfOXouAlJl-btE

[@benkleinman9694]

@@paphitisn I'm following the steps but it is not saving the individual files anywhere. I've tested this several times. Any thoughts? Also, why would MS create a merge tool without the ability to save individually? That seems absurd in 2023.

[@paphitisn]

@@benkleinman9694 i cant answer for microsoft but i can give you this: kzbin.info/www/bejne/hIfOXouAlJl-btE This tutorial should resove your issues and provide you with a far better solution for merging to documents with personalised file names. Let me know how it goes.

[@benkleinman9694]

@@paphitisn Thank you. I was working on something like this. Because I work in industry, I also added a PW for the Word docs ( password:=MasterDoc.MailMerge.DataSource.DataFields("PW").Value & "", _), Unfortunately, Microsoft does not offer native ability to save PDFs with a PW, so a person would have to rely on third party tools--many of which are really just vectors for viruses and malware (e.g., Wondershare). (It is too hard to manually add PWs to 5,000+ PDFs.)

[@paphitisn]

@@benkleinman9694 very true about passwords and pdf's. You may find it more functiinal to add your code for adding a password using this method off splitting your merged docs. kzbin.info/www/bejne/hIfOXouAlJl-btE

[@joycarpenters]

Hi, this is realy helpful once I figured out the solution to the errors Ive been receiving 😢 i got “ the selection does not consist of heading levels” after trying to create a show document Hope you could help! 😊

[@paphitisn]

this is a great method if someone else did the merge and sent you the merged document . If you are doing the merge then i suggest you use this method. kzbin.info/www/bejne/hIfOXouAlJl-btEsi=qVkowMeIp0ZrYCPT

[@rudl410]

I followed the directions and it still didn't work for me :*(

[@paphitisn]

Try this method instead kzbin.info/www/bejne/roTNk3ibZ9CKa6Msi=U0404O2_f4MywHG9

[@thariyamadu]

its work. thanks. but how to save pdf format?

[@paphitisn]

i am glad. If you are the one generating the merged document, you will prefer this method so that it will automatically generate pdf documents as well: kzbin.info/www/bejne/hIfOXouAlJl-btEsi=RdHmeTQSqqpCrCu_

[@mehul6889]

So underrated Thanks man :)

[@paphitisn]

You are welcome. Thanks for your comment.

[@stephanieeeys]

Hello, Nicos! Thanks for the tutorial. I used the one with coding and succeeded. Saved a lot of my time! This one, though, I tried several times already and failed everytime. When I clicked Save, it just saved the merged file but it doesn't create those files per name. What did I do wrong?

[@paphitisn]

Make sure you are using the predefined Heading 1 for the very first line with the name.

[@adam_ad_]

Also, I found that this fails if I am trying to do this in sharepoint, or OneDrive environment. On my work pc I need to be on a network drive or it will not save the seperate files.

[@stephanieeeys]

@@adam_ad_ true, I just tried saving locally and it worked! Thank you!

[@sudheeralappuzha9591]

Thanks Sir..........God bless u

[@paphitisn]

And you. Thanks for your comment.

[@tilecleaningagents]

Thank you - you're a star !

[@paphitisn]

You are welcome. Thanks for your comment

[@ikhsanatjeh1525]

Thanks for the tutorial...

[@paphitisn]

i am glad you liked it, If you are interested in customized mail merged documents, you will find this interesting. kzbin.info/www/bejne/hIfOXouAlJl-btEsi=X9i9GczWX2MQIGdQ

[@A.Luallen]

awesome helpful!!

[@mjabeer]

excellent

[@snowfox6795]

Thanks a lot dude

[@paphitisn]

@@snowfox6795 make sure to check my other tutorial on merging to separate doc and pdf. A much better solution if you are doind the merge.

[@user-lg8pj8qw6t]

Good Instructions. But not suitable where there are letter header and footers.

[@tharindujayawickrama9740]

Woow. Thanks

[@paphitisn]

you should have a look at this also: kzbin.info/www/bejne/hIfOXouAlJl-btEsi=9R5WRUDGXnP-SwSX

[@juliehoodonline4218]

Brilliant concept - however, my final documents had changed the fonts and removed the header image. So I'm going to retry with your mail merge with the macro in this video: kzbin.info/www/bejne/hIfOXouAlJl-btE

[@paphitisn]

The one with the macro will leave everything as is. It is rhe best option. I also have a tutorial on merging pictures you may find interesting. It is great for generating transcripts with student picture.