assign a specific style to multiple word files without opening them - ms-word

Question

I created a new style in word(through "create a style...") and I want to assign this style to 200 word files. it is very time consuming to open them one by one and assign the style to them. Is there any way to assign the style to them without opening them?

Answer 1

The easiest way to do this is using Word VBA.
Place the 200 Word files that will be assigned the style into a directory that contains no other files. Then create a .dotm (Word 2007 or higher) or .dot (Word 2003 or lower) template file in a different location. Create the style to be copied in the template file and also place the following code into a module within that same template file (ALT-F11 to access the editor):
Sub BatchCopyStyles()
'Make sure that the template that contains the style to be copied and this code
'is open and acting as the active document before running this macro
Dim file As Variant
Dim folderPath As String 'path to files receiving the style
Dim targetPath As String
Dim templateFile As String 'file that contains style and this code
Dim styleTemplate As Document
folderPath = "C:\Users\Joe\Desktop\TargetFolder\"
templateFile = "C:\Users\Joe\Desktop\CopyStyle.dotm"
Set styleTemplate = ActiveDocument
file = Dir(folderPath)
While (file <> "")
Set file = Documents.Open(FileName:=folderPath & file)
styleTemplate.Activate
targetPath = folderPath & file
Application.OrganizerCopy Source:=templateFile, _
Destination:=targetPath, _
Name:="StyleToCopy", _
Object:=wdOrganizerObjectStyles
file.Close wdSaveChanges
file = Dir
Wend
End Sub
Edit the code for the correct paths, file name, style name, etc. With the file containing this code and the style to be assigned as the Active Document, run the macro from the VBA editor (F5). This will open each file, copy the style, and then close the file. Opening and closing a document 200 times won't be pretty, but it should do the job.