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This Microsoft Word Tips & Microsoft Word Help page is one of my earliest offerings that has held its value. Do you often work with a group of say half a dozen files scattered across two or more folders?

The macros in this tips page will allow you to quickly save and close all of your group of files and then reopen the entire group with a click of a button anytime you want to work with that group of files again.

Start with all files in your group opened. The first macro saves all open files

Sub GroupSave()
  Documents.Save NoPrompt:=True
lbl_Exit:
  Exit Sub

The second macro writes the file name and path to a .txt file, saves, and finally closes the group of open files:

Sub CloseFilesAndStoreList()
Dim strSettingsFile As String
Dim oDoc As Document
  strSettingsFile = Options.DefaultFilePath(wdDocumentsPath) & "\GroupFileList.txt"
  Open strSettingsFile For Output As #1
  For Each oDoc In Documents
    Print #1, oDoc.FullName
    oDoc.Close wdSaveChanges
  Next
  Close #1
End Sub

The final macro opens all the files in a .txt file "GroupFileList.txt" stored in your default documents folder:

Sub OpenListOfFiles()
Dim strSettingsFile As String
Dim arrFiles() As String
Dim i As Long
  strSettingsFile = Options.DefaultFilePath(wdDocumentsPath) & "\GroupFileList.txt"
  Open strSettingsFile For Input As #1
  arrFiles() = Split(Input(LOF(1), #1), vbCrLf)
  Close #1
  For i = 0 To UBound(arrFiles) - 1
    Documents.Open arrFiles(i)
  Next
lbl_Exit:
  Exit Sub
End Sub

I have provided a simple template add-in with a toolbar. Once you have intially opened your group of files "the old fashioned way," the toolbar can be used to save all the open files in your group, save and close the group, and reopen the group.

That's it! I hope you have found this tips page informative and you find the template add-in useful. Download the add-in here: Group File Opener

For more on template add-ins and how to load them, see: Organizing Your Macros/Template Add-ins at: Installing Macros

This page was last updated on March 09, 2021

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