How do you run a Word mail merge macro from Excel? - excel

Question

I have a macro in an Excel workbook that currently does the following:
Create a data.csv file with data in the first two rows (for a mail merge)
Pull a template of a selected Word document and make the data.csv file the source for the mail merge
If the user chooses, it finishes the merge for the document
If the user chooses, it opens the document when the macro is complete. If they don't choose to open, the word documents all close.
I've been running into a couple major issues:
The macro only seems to run smoothly if Word is entirely closed beforehand. My current workaround is a popup message if Word is open, telling the user to close word, but this is not ideal because it disrupts flow for some users who may have several instances of Word open.
The macro has been running slowly, especially for some of the document templates that have thousands of merge fields pre-entered in the template. It sometimes take longer than a minute, and sometimes completely freezes.
Would the macro would run more smoothly if I have the Excel VBA open the Word template and have most of the code for setting up and finishing the mail merge in Word VBA? I'm much less familiar with Word VBA - can anyone help me with bringing over my code to word (but still initiated by Excel)? Also, if you can figure out why the macro struggles when Word is already open, I'd greatly appreciate it.
I didn't include the entire code for proprietary reasons, but please let me know if there's something else you need to see.
Thank you!!
Sub Mail_Merge_Dynamic()
Dim mergeFile, tempFilePath As String
Dim WordDoc, WordApp As Object
Dim tempPath, mergePath, finalPath, curDir As String
Dim mergeFilePath, finalFilePath As String
Dim dataPath, FileNameCell, PrincCertCell, MMPrefix As String
Dim FileCount As Integer
Dim Close_Choice, ActiveWindow As String
Dim WarningMsg, WarningMsg2 As String
Dim NotFound, Overwrite1, Overwrite2 As Boolean
Dim oBook As Workbook
'Update csv file for Data Merge
narrative_merge
Call WarpSpeed_On
Sheets("Navigation").Select
Range("Merge_File_1").Select
Set WordApp = CreateObject("Word.Application")
'//////////////////////////////MAIL MERGE MACRO\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\
'Set up Mail Merge Documents from Template Folder based on selections on Navigation tab
For i = 1 To FileCount
FileNameCell = "Merge_File_" & i
If Range(FileNameCell) = "" Then
Else
mergeFile = Range(FileNameCell)
tempFilePath = tempPath & mergeFile
mergeFilePath = mergePath & "MM_" & mergeFile
finalFilePath = finalPath & mergeFile
'Activate Mail Merge
If Range("MM_Activate") = 0 Then
Else
Set WordDoc = WordApp.Documents.Open(tempFilePath)
With WordDoc.MailMerge
.MainDocumentType = wdFormLetters
'Set up the mail merge data source
dataPath = curDir & "\data.csv"
.OpenDataSource Name:=dataPath
'Show values in the mail merge fields
.ViewMailMergeFieldCodes = wdToggle
End With
'WordDoc.ShowFieldCodes = False
'WordDoc.MailMerge.ViewMailMergeFieldCodes = False
WordDoc.SaveAs FileName:=mergeFilePath
End If
' Finish mail merge
If Range("MM_Finish") = 0 Then
Else
With WordDoc.MailMerge
.Destination = wdSendToNewDocument
.SuppressBlankLines = True
.Execute Pause:=False
End With
WordDoc.Application.ActiveDocument.SaveAs finalFilePath
End If
End If
Next i
Call CloseWordDocuments
'Make word visible if an Open command has been selected
If Range("MM_Open_Merge") = 1 Or Range("MM_Open_Doc") = 1 Then
curDir = ThisWorkbook.Path
Set WordApp = CreateObject("Word.Application")
For i = 1 To FileCount
FileNameCell = "Merge_File_" & i
If Range(FileNameCell) = "" Then
Else
mergeFile = Range(FileNameCell)
mergeFilePath = curDir & "\Merge-Active Forms\" & "MM_" & mergeFile
finalFilePath = curDir & "\Merge-Complete Forms\" & mergeFile
If Range("MM_Open_Merge") = 1 Then
Set WordDoc = WordApp.Documents.Open(mergeFilePath)
End If
If Range("MM_Open_Doc") = 1 Then
Set WordDoc = WordApp.Documents.Open(finalFilePath)
End If
End If
Next i
WordApp.Visible = True
'Windows(mergeFile).Activate
End If
GoTo Reset
Reset:
Call WarpSpeed_Off
End Sub
Sub WarpSpeed_On_Calcs_Off()
'Optimize Macro Speed
Application.ScreenUpdating = False
Application.EnableEvents = False
Application.Calculation = xlCalculationManual
' Turn off display alerts
Application.DisplayAlerts = False
End Sub
Sub WarpSpeed_On()
'Optimize Macro Speed
Application.ScreenUpdating = False
Application.EnableEvents = False
' Turn off display alerts
Application.DisplayAlerts = False
End Sub
Sub WarpSpeed_Off()
'Reset Macro Optimization Settings
Application.EnableEvents = True
Application.ScreenUpdating = True
Application.DisplayAlerts = True
Application.Calculation = xlCalculationAutomatic
End Sub

Answer 1

Instead of:
Set WordApp = CreateObject("Word.Application")
this will open Word if it is not already open:
Set WordApp = GetObject(, "Word.Application")
Edit#1
In VBA you may do something like:
On Error GoTo CreateObj
' Is Word application already running ?
Set WordApp = GetObject(, "Word.Application")
GoTo gotApp
CreateObj:
' Not running, create first instance:
Set WordApp = CreateObject("Word.Application")
gotApp:
On Error GoTo 0 ' disable error handling
' continue
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