Need an expert on merging and joinging files.

[ModernDriver]

I have been using Word for 13 years now, but I am having problems merging
three large files together to form one file.
All the formatting among all the three Word (2002) files are perfect as
they are, and I simply want to append File 2 to the end of File 1, and File 3
to the end of File 2, and then Save As a new Document, say File 4. Each of
the files has several sections each starting on a new page. When I go to the
last section of File 1, for example, and then use the Insert File... option
from the Insert tab, all the formatting that was perfect in File 2 is now all
mixed up: font size is different, font spacing is different, page breaks are
different, and line spacing is different. So I am puzzled why Word would
change the formatting of File 2 (or File 3) simply because I simply inserted
it into the end of another file.
So, is there any way that I can simply join Files 1, 2 and 3 together to
form a new file without all my formatting getting messed up? It would take
me days (literally) to go through and have to manually reformat the new file
if they were all inserted together.
File 1 is 22 megabytes. File 2 is 37 megabytes. File 3 is only 4
megabytes, and I simply want to join all 3 of these files into one 63
megabyte file and not have to lose my formatting along the way. It's not a
question of memory, I have plenty of that.
One thing I have tried is to null all the fields in the autoformat
options so that styles, headings, etc., are not preserved, but even when they
were all checked under the default settings, Word was going crazy when
inserting File 2 to the end of File 1, and all that formatting in File 2 was
messed up. File 1 remained unchanged. Likewise, I tried opening File 2 and
inserting File 3 to the end of it, and all the formatting of File 3 was
messed up, but file 2 was fine. So, at this point, I am thinking I need a
utility or something? I don't want to "upgrade" to a newer version of Word,
I just need a file joiner utility, and the two that I have tried did not
work, and one even randomly deleted paragraphs and pictures I had inserted.
So any advice at all about joining files would be greatly appreciated!
It's not enough to have the files simply joined together. I don't want
the formatting changed when I merge or join the file, I just need one
seemless, continuous file with the formatting exactly as the three
independent files are now.

 

[Peter T. Daniels]

Sounds like you have styles in the three documents with the same names
but different properties. If you rename all such styles in two of the
documents, most of the problems will go away.

If you have different margin settings (or other things that are
controlled by section) in the different documents, be sure to put a
Section Break New Page at the beginning and end of Files 2 and 3.

You may need to go through the headers and footers from beginning to
end in order, to get the page numbering and content right.

 

[Doug Robbins - Word MVP]

With a document that size, you are probably not going to want to edit it
after combining it, so I would use the free Primo PDF printer, to print each
document to a file with the same name, having set the option when the
PrimoPDF dialog appears to "Append to Existing" if a file with the same name
exists.

Of course, if you have the full version of Adobe Acrobat, you can use it to
do the same thing.

--
Hope this helps.

Please reply to the newsgroup unless you wish to avail yourself of my
services on a paid consulting basis.

Doug Robbins - Word MVP, originally posted via msnews.microsoft.com