Automating Mail Merge using Excel VBA - excel

Question

I created a macro in Excel where I can mail-merge data from Excel into Word Letter Template and save the individual files in the folder.
I have Employee data in Excel and I can generate any Employee letter using that Data and can save the individual Employee letter as per the Employee name.
I have run mail-merge automatically and save individual files as per the Employee name. And every time it runs the file for one person it will give the status as Letter Already Generate so that it wont duplicate any Employee records.
The problem is the output in all the merged files the output is same as the first row. Example: if my Excel has 5 Employee details I am able to save the 5 individual merged files on each employee name, however the merged data if of the first employee who is in Row 2.
My rows have the below data:
Row A: has S.No.
Row B: has Empl Name
Row C: has Processing Date
Row D: has Address
Row E: Firstname
Row F: Business Title
Row G: Shows the status (if the letter is generated it shows "Letter Generated Already" after running the macro or it shows blank if it is new record entered.
Also how can I save the output (merged file) also in PDF other than DOC file so the merged files will be in two formats one in DOC and the other one in PDF formats?
Sub MergeMe()
Dim bCreatedWordInstance As Boolean
Dim objWord As Word.Application
Dim objMMMD As Word.Document
Dim EmployeeName As String
Dim cDir As String
Dim r As Long
Dim ThisFileName As String
lastrow = Sheets("Data").Range("A" & Rows.Count).End(xlUp).Row
r = 2
For r = 2 To lastrow
If Cells(r, 7).Value = "Letter Generated Already" Then GoTo nextrow
EmployeeName = Sheets("Data").Cells(r, 2).Value
' Setup filenames
Const WTempName = "letter.docx" 'This is the 07/10 Word Templates name, Change as req'd
Dim NewFileName As String
NewFileName = "Offer Letter - " & EmployeeName & ".docx" 'This is the New 07/10 Word Documents File Name, Change as req'd"
' Setup directories
cDir = ActiveWorkbook.path + "\" 'Change if appropriate
ThisFileName = ThisWorkbook.Name
On Error Resume Next
' Create a Word Application instance
bCreatedWordInstance = False
Set objWord = GetObject(, "Word.Application")
If objWord Is Nothing Then
Err.Clear
Set objWord = CreateObject("Word.Application")
bCreatedWordInstance = True
End If
If objWord Is Nothing Then
MsgBox "Could not start Word"
Err.Clear
On Error GoTo 0
Exit Sub
End If
' Let Word trap the errors
On Error GoTo 0
' Set to True if you want to see the Word Doc flash past during construction
objWord.Visible = False
'Open Word Template
Set objMMMD = objWord.Documents.Open(cDir + WTempName)
objMMMD.Activate
'Merge the data
With objMMMD
.MailMerge.OpenDataSource Name:=cDir + ThisFileName, sqlstatement:="SELECT * FROM `Data$`" ' Set this as required
With objMMMD.MailMerge 'With ActiveDocument.MailMerge
.Destination = wdSendToNewDocument
.SuppressBlankLines = True
With .DataSource
.FirstRecord = wdDefaultFirstRecord
.LastRecord = wdDefaultLastRecord
End With
.Execute Pause:=False
End With
End With
' Save new file
objWord.ActiveDocument.SaveAs cDir + NewFileName
' Close the Mail Merge Main Document
objMMMD.Close savechanges:=wdDoNotSaveChanges
Set objMMMD = Nothing
' Close the New Mail Merged Document
If bCreatedWordInstance Then
objWord.Quit
End If
0:
Set objWord = Nothing
Cells(r, 7).Value = "Letter Generated Already"
nextrow:
Next r
End Sub

Answer 1

To save the file in pdf format use
objWord.ActiveDocument.ExportAsFixedFormat cDir & NewFileName, _
ExportFormat:=wdExportFormatPDF
It looks to me that when you are executing the mail merge, it should create a file with ALL of the letters, so when you open it, it would appear that the first letter is the one that is getting saved, but if you scroll down the word file that you have saved, you may find each letter on a new page.
Instead, you want to execute the merge one letter at a time.
To fix this, change the lines as follows:
With .DataSource
.FirstRecord = r-1
.LastRecord = r-1
.ActiveRecord = r-1
You need to use r-1 because Word is going to use the record number in its dataset, and since the data starts in row 2, and the counter r is related to the row, you need r-1.
You don't need to open up word each time, so put all of the code setting the datasource of the mail merge and creating the word doc outside of your main loop.
Const WTempName = "letter.docx" 'This is the 07/10 Word Templates name,
Dim NewFileName As String
' Setup directories
cDir = ActiveWorkbook.path + "\" 'Change if appropriate
ThisFileName = ThisWorkbook.Name
On Error Resume Next
' Create a Word Application instance
bCreatedWordInstance = False
Set objWord = GetObject(, "Word.Application")
If objWord Is Nothing Then
Err.Clear
Set objWord = CreateObject("Word.Application")
bCreatedWordInstance = True
End If
If objWord Is Nothing Then
MsgBox "Could not start Word"
Err.Clear
On Error GoTo 0
Exit Sub
End If
' Let Word trap the errors
On Error GoTo 0
' Set to True if you want to see the Word Doc flash past during construction
objWord.Visible = False
'Open Word Template
Set objMMMD = objWord.Documents.Open(cDir + WTempName)
objMMMD.Activate
'Merge the data
With objMMMD
.MailMerge.OpenDataSource Name:=cDir + ThisFileName, _
sqlstatement:="SELECT * FROM `Data$`" ' Set this as required
For r = 2 To lastrow
If Cells(r, 7).Value = "Letter Generated Already" Then GoTo nextrow
'rest of code goes here
Also, instead of checking the Excel file for the Employee name to create the file name, you could do this after you merge the document. For me, this is a little more intuitive to link the file name to the letter you have just merged. To do this update the line further to:
With .DataSource
.FirstRecord = r-1
.LastRecord = r-1
.ActiveRecord = r-1
EmployeeName = .EmployeeName 'Assuming this is the field name
Then immediately before saving the file you can do this:
' Save new file
NewFileName = "Offer Letter - " & EmployeeName & ".docx"
objWord.ActiveDocument.SaveAs cDir + NewFileName
Hope this helps.

Answer 2

The following code works as intended. It saves one .docx and one .pdf file for each entry in the data table while following OpiesDad's recommendations.
Before running, check if the VBA library for Word (Microsoft Word 16.0 Object Library) is activated and make the connection to the Excel data table from the Word template (Mail Merge settings).
Sub MergeMe()
Application.ScreenUpdating = False
Dim bCreatedWordInstance As Boolean
Dim objWord As Word.Application
Dim objMMMD As Word.Document
Dim EmployeeName As String
Dim cDir As String
Dim r As Long
Dim ThisFileName As String
lastrow = Sheets("Dados").Range("A" & Rows.Count).End(xlUp).Row
r = 2
' Setup filenames
Const WTempName = "Proposta.docx" 'Word Template name, Change as req'd
Dim NewFileName As String
On Error Resume Next
' Setup directories
cDir = ActiveWorkbook.Path + "\" 'Change if appropriate
ThisFileName = ThisWorkbook.Name
' Create a Word Application instance
bCreatedWordInstance = False
Set objWord = GetObject(, "Word.Application")
If objWord Is Nothing Then
Err.Clear
Set objWord = CreateObject("Word.Application")
bCreatedWordInstance = True
End If
If objWord Is Nothing Then
MsgBox "Could not start Word"
Exit Sub
End If
' Set to True if you want to see the Word Doc flash past during construction
objWord.Visible = False
'Open Word Template
Set objMMMD = objWord.Documents.Open(cDir + WTempName)
'loop through each table row
For r = 2 To lastrow
If Cells(r, 7).Value = "Letter Generated Already" Then GoTo nextrow
objMMMD.Activate
'Merge the data
With objMMMD
.MailMerge.OpenDataSource Name:=cDir + ThisFileName, sqlstatement:="SELECT * FROM `Dados$`" ' Set this as required
With objMMMD.MailMerge 'With ActiveDocument.MailMerge
.Destination = wdSendToNewDocument
.SuppressBlankLines = True
With .DataSource
.FirstRecord = r - 1
.LastRecord = r - 1
.ActiveRecord = r - 1
EmployeeName = .DataFields("Nome").Value 'Change "Nome". to the column name for employee names"
End With
.Execute Pause:=False 'executes the mail merge
End With
End With
On Error GoTo 0
' Save new file (.docx & .pdf) and close it
NewFileName = "Offer Letter - " & EmployeeName 'Word Document File Name, Change as req'd"
objWord.ActiveDocument.SaveAs cDir + NewFileName + ".docx"
objWord.ActiveDocument.ExportAsFixedFormat cDir + NewFileName + ".pdf", _
ExportFormat:=wdExportFormatPDF
objWord.ActiveDocument.Close
Cells(r, 7).Value = "Letter Generated Already"
nextrow:
Next r
objMMMD.Close False
objWord.Quit
Application.ScreenUpdating = True
End Sub