Combining Documents (DOCX and PDF) into a single document....

[rpeare]

I've built a database creating agendas for meetings allowing the shuffling of priority for each agenda item and each individual under each agenda item.

So the basic structure is



Agenda - (1 agenda per month usually)
Agenda Item - (1 to many relationship with agenda, with an ordering mechanism i.e. 1 to N where N is the maximum number of agenda items)
Agenda Item Sub Item (1 to many relationship with Agenda Item with a similar ordering mechanism)

Now, each agenda item and sub item may have one or more documents (.docx or .pdf) attached to it.
Each one of these documents will have a priority as well. so there may be a document associated with the Agenda Item and 3 documents (mix of .docx and .pdf) associated with each one of the Agenda Item Sub Items.

What the person currently running the database does each month is do a manual process whereby she combines all the documents associated with the main agenda into a single .pdf document she can distribute to board members.
The trick is that she spends a lot of time making sure she's combining the documents in the right order even if the agenda gets shuffled around.

What she's asking for is a way to have my database combine all the documents in the database in the order they appear in the 'current' agenda.

i.e. if an agenda has 6 agenda items, and each agenda Item has a document (either PDF or .DOCX) and each agenda item has 2 sub items and each sub item has 3 attachments she wants the database to put these together like

Agenda Item 1 - Document 1
Agenda Sub Item 1 - Document 1
Agenda Sub Item 1 - Document 2
Agenda Sub Item 1 - Document 3
Agenda Sub Item 2 - Document 1
Agenda Sub Item 2 - Document 2
Agenda Sub Item 2 - Document 3
Agenda Item 2 - Document 1
...

and so on.

I am loathe to pay for a third party application to make this happen so I thought I'd come here first to see if anyone has had any experience combining .DOCX and PDFs into a single document.
I can handle the ordering/reordering with no problem, I just haven't had any experience attempting to combine multiple source documents into a single end document.

The person involved has a full version of adobe acrobat 2017 if that makes a difference. (i.e. invoking a command line to make acrobat do it)
If there's a way to do this strictly with VBA that's what I would prefer so the database isn't reliant on any external software.

thanks
rp

[Welshgasman]

I doubt you can combine as you are asking? The header of a file states what it is.?
Why not make the DOCX files pdf, then merge.?

I have only done pdf merging/splitting manually, but it should be viable via some program?

https://www.google.com/search?q=appe...hrome&ie=UTF-8

[Micron]

IIRC, there is a dll for Access vba at the Adobe website. You'd include this as a reference on the user pc plus the user requires Adobe (not just Acrobat I believe).
Can't remember what I used (or tried to use) it for but from what I remember, this won't be a cake walk. Maybe you can find forum threads on using the dll but how to combine documents might be quite the challenge. I think that in most cases, if you can do it manually there's a good chance you can code it. The trick is knowing how.
HTH

[kd2017]

Since you're a paying adobe customer id investigate that first. If it were me I would convert the docx files to pdf, then simply use command line tools through vba to merge them together in the correct order.

If acrobat doesn't have something to suite you I use something called pdftk (free) for command line pdf splitting, merging, extracting, watermarking, etc.

[orange]

rpeare --Welcome back. Haven't seen you in long time.

Not sure how relevant this is, but convert Docx to pdf.

Albert Kallal merge info

[rpeare]

Since you're a paying adobe customer id investigate that first. If it were me I would convert the docx files to pdf, then simply use command line tools through vba to merge them together in the correct order.

If acrobat doesn't have something to suite you I use something called pdftk (free) for command line pdf splitting, merging, extracting, watermarking, etc.

KD2017: This is exactly the route I was attempting to go, I should be able to, at worst, open the documents in word then do a save as via VBA. Then the chore of combining PDF's should be easier.
MICRON: those were my thoughts too, usually if there's a menu option to do something I can figure out how to trigger it as well, particularly if it's another MS product. I just didn't know if the tools existed in VBA already or if I'd have to find an additional (installed) component.
ORANGE: hello! and thanks for the welcome. I'll take a look at your links.