Export individual documents from mail merge - vba

Question

How would I create individuals files from mail merge rather than the one large file that is output by the mail merge function in Microsoft Office?
I was hoping to be able to save each letter than was created as a name of one of the merge fields, but I haven't been able to find an intuitive way so far...

Answer 1

Recently I've come across the similar situation where I want to save individual files in pdf format rather than saving one large file created by Mail merge function. I've written down this small function to save individual file in pdf format.
Sub SaveAsPDF()
Dim CouncilName As String
With ActiveDocument.MailMerge
.Destination = wdSendToNewDocument
.SuppressBlankLines = True
For SectionCount = 1 To .DataSource.RecordCount
With .DataSource
'FirstRecord and LastRecords defines how many data records needs to be merge in one document.
'createing pdf file for each data record so in this case they are both pointing to ActiveRecord.
.FirstRecord = ActiveDocument.MailMerge.DataSource.ActiveRecord
.LastRecord = ActiveDocument.MailMerge.DataSource.ActiveRecord
'get the council name from data source
CouncilName = .DataFields("Council").Value
'move to next datasource record.
If .ActiveRecord <> .RecordCount Then
.ActiveRecord = wdNextRecord
End If
End With
'Get path and file name
PDFPathAndName = ActiveDocument.Path & Application.PathSeparator & "FINAL - " & CouncilName & ".pdf"
' Merge the document
.Execute Pause:=False
' Save resulting document.
Set PDFFile = ActiveDocument
PDFFile.ExportAsFixedFormat PDFPathAndName, wdExportFormatPDF
PDFFile.Close 0
Next
End With
End Sub

Answer 2

as of my experience, there is no option to save individual files, instead you can use Macro to spit the files and save it individually with specific name that you want. I have tried the same and succeeded with what want. Hope the below code helps you as well to achieve you goal.
Sub BreakOnSection()
'Used to set criteria for moving through the document by section.
Application.Browser.Target = wdBrowseSection
'A mailmerge document ends with a section break next page.
'Subtracting one from the section count stop error message.
For i = 1 To ((ActiveDocument.Sections.Count) - 1)
'Select and copy the section text to the clipboard
ActiveDocument.Bookmarks("\Section").Range.Copy
'Create a new document to paste text from clipboard.
Documents.Add
'To save your document with the original formatting'
Selection.PasteAndFormat (wdFormatOriginalFormatting)
'Removes the break that is copied at the end of the section, if any.
Selection.MoveUp Unit:=wdLine, Count:=1, Extend:=wdExtend
Selection.Delete Unit:=wdCharacter, Count:=1
ChangeFileOpenDirectory "C:\"
DocNum = DocNum + 1
ActiveDocument.SaveAs FileName:="test_" & DocNum & ".doc"
ActiveDocument.Close
'Move the selection to the next section in the document
Application.Browser.Next
Next i
ActiveDocument.Close savechanges:=wdDoNotSaveChanges
End Sub
Please revert me for any clarifications.

Answer 3

I modified Parth's answer since it didn't work for me.
Sub SaveAsFileName()
Dim FileName As String
With ActiveDocument.MailMerge
.Destination = wdSendToNewDocument
.SuppressBlankLines = True
For SectionCount = 1 To .DataSource.RecordCount
With .DataSource
ActiveDocument.MailMerge.DataSource.ActiveRecord = SectionCount
ActiveDocument.MailMerge.DataSource.FirstRecord = SectionCount
ActiveDocument.MailMerge.DataSource.LastRecord = SectionCount
' replace Filename with the column heading that you want to use - can't have certain symbols in the name
FileName = .DataFields("Filename").Value
End With
'Get path and file name
FullPathAndName = ActiveDocument.Path & Application.PathSeparator & FileName & ".docx"
' Merge the document
.Execute Pause:=False
' Save resulting document.
ActiveDocument.SaveAs (FullPathAndName)
ActiveDocument.Close False
Next
End With
End Sub