Re: OT: combining Word files for XyWrite project

[Peregrine@xxxxxxxx]

Alison Tartt writes:

> Using WordPort's filters, I'm going to be importing Word 97 files into
> XyWrite 3+ so that I can edit them. As it turns out, the author of this
> book created a separate Word file for each page in the book! So I'm dealing
> with six chapters (folders in Windows Explorer), each containing zillions
> of files (they fill up an entire CD). Aside from opening each file and
> doing a copy/paste into a new chapter-level file, is there any batch
> process that anyone knows of that will combine multiple files into one?
> Ending up with ASCII files would be okay (and eliminate the need to use a
> conversion tool) since the Word formatting is simple and can be sacrificed.
> I'm sure a programmer could write a macro that would do this, but I
> wouldn't know where to start. Are there any macro source that anyone is
> aware of? If that's a naive question, then any other suggestions for
> solving this tedious problem would be greatly appreciated.

The FIRST thing I'd do is rewrite your standards for submission! No writer
ought to get away with such a dumb stunt.

You can write macros in Word '97, and I think that may be a solution worth
exploring. I believe you could creat a macro that would merge all files in a
given directory and then save the resulting file as ASCII. But I would send
it back to the author and insist he/she do it. Could provide the opportunity
for a valuable lesson!

Jeff Seager