How to edit all word documents in a directory? - ms-word

Question

I've been given the scut job of correcting some hundred or so code testing reports that have been filled out incorrectly by a senior coder who has more import work to do.
Unluckily for me all the files are ms-word documents. But luckily for the formatting is all the same and the errors are all made in the same cells in the same table.
In the past I wrote a bash to edit to change single quotes to double quotes on multiple xml files. But that was with a linux machine. This time around I have only a window machine.
Any hints where to begin?

Answer 1

The answer was to use VBA. I built two subroutines.
The first subRoutine loops through the directory and
opens each *.doc file it finds. Then on the open document file it calls
the second subRoutine. After the second subRoutine is finished the document
is saved and then closed.
Sub DoVBRoutineNow()
Dim file
Dim path As String
path = "C:\Documents and Settings\userName\My Documents\myWorkFolder\"
file = Dir(path & "*.doc")
Do While file <> ""
Documents.Open FileName:=path & file
Call editCellsTableRow2
ActiveDocument.Save
ActiveDocument.Close
file = Dir()
Loop
End Sub
~~~~~~
The second subRoutine only works if all documents have the same formating.
For example: The second row of the only table in the document has cells numbered 6, 7, 8. These contain "dd/MM/yyyy" , "Last Name", "First Name"
These cells need to be changed to "yyyy/MM/dd", "Surname", "Given Name"
Sub editCellsTableRow2()
Application.ScreenUpdating = False
Dim Tbl As Table, cel As Cell, i As Long, n As Long
With ActiveDocument
For Each Tbl In .Tables
Tbl.Rows(2).Alignment = xlCenter
For Each cel In Tbl.Rows(2).Cells
If cel.ColumnIndex = 6 Then
cel.Range.Text = vbCrLf + "yyyy/MM/dd"
End If
If cel.ColumnIndex = 7 Then
cel.Range.Text = vbCrLf + "Surname"
End If
If cel.ColumnIndex = 8 Then
cel.Range.Text = vbCrLf + "Given Name"
End If
Next cel
Next Tbl
End With
Set cel = Nothing: Set Tbl = Nothing
Application.ScreenUpdating = True
End Sub