There are several reasons why bulk converting old Microsoft Office documents can be worthwhile. The new files are typically much smaller, present fewer security risks and are less likely to be blocked by default, either now or in the future.
When this macro is run, it will prompt for a FOLDER and will then convert all documents in that folder and all subfolders. For a large folder this may take some time. This code is for Microsoft Windows only.
Public Sub ConvertDocToDocx()
Dim FSO, objFolder, objSubfolder, objFile, queue As Collection
Dim fldr As FileDialog
Dim strFolder As String
Dim objWordApplication As New Word.Application
Dim objWordDocument As Word.Document
Dim strOldFileName As String
Set fldr = Application.FileDialog(msoFileDialogFolderPicker)
With fldr
.Title = "Select a Folder"
.AllowMultiSelect = False
.InitialFileName = "C:\demo\"
If .Show <> -1 Then Exit Sub
strFolder = .SelectedItems(1)
End With
Set fldr = Nothing
Set FSO = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
' magic to loop through subfolders
Set queue = New Collection
queue.Add FSO.GetFolder(strFolder)
Do While queue.Count > 0
Set objFolder = queue(1)
queue.Remove 1 'dequeue
'...insert any per-folder processing code here...
For Each objSubfolder In objFolder.SubFolders
queue.Add objSubfolder 'enqueue
Next objSubfolder
For Each objFile In objFolder.Files
If LCase(Right(objFile, 3)) = "doc" Then
strOldFileName = objFile
'Open old file
With objWordApplication
Set objWordDocument = .Documents.Open(FileName:=strOldFileName, AddToRecentFiles:=False, ReadOnly:=False, Visible:=True)
' Save it
With objWordDocument
' Save as docx or docm, depending on whether the file contains macros.
' and turn off compatibility mode
If .HasVBProject = False Then
.SaveAs2 FileName:=.FullName & "x", FileFormat:=wdFormatXMLDocument, CompatibilityMode:=15, AddToRecentFiles:=False
Else
.SaveAs2 FileName:=.FullName & "m", FileFormat:=wdFormatXMLDocumentMacroEnabled, CompatibilityMode:=15, AddToRecentFiles:=False
End If
'close the document
.Close False
End With
End With
End If
Next objFile
Loop
End Sub
This macro will turn off Compatibility Mode for every file it saves, this may involve some data loss, typically the colours of some items may change and add-in content like Word-Art may be lost.
When converting older Word files you may need to Open the Trust Centre ➞ File Block settings and untick the File Block.
You may also have to allow VBA macros to run under Macro Security settings.
The script above does not delete the original files. You could add a VBA KILL command to do that if desired, but I strongly recommend checking that the file conversions have worked first.
The same approach can be used for .DOT Template files, just change "doc" to "dot" in the script above. Template files containing Macros may not convert correctly unless you manually open them and Save As.
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