Is there a way to convert thousands of old word docs 98 to say 2010 automatically?

[Cosmic Wizard]

Hi guys,
I had an old program which look in folders and converting word from say 93 to 2010, and then deleted the old files.
When I open Word it was in the Add in.
When it was finished it printed a page of all the files it had converted
Then they had a computer upgrade and all my old programs got wipe and I can't remember what it was named.
Would anyone remember this program or can they suggest a something which could help?
I basically have thousand of old files to convert.
I also have thousands of PowerPoint and Excel files which need to be convert as well so any help there would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance, Andrew.

 

[rlv01]

Maybe this?

https://www.tecklyfe.com/tech-tip-bulk-convert-old-office-documents-to-new-office-format/

 

[Cosmic Wizard]

Maybe this?

https://www.tecklyfe.com/tech-tip-bulk-convert-old-office-documents-to-new-office-format/

Actually found it at last:

https://gregmaxey.com/word_tip_pages/process_batch_folder_addin.html

Thanks so much for you help, but this macro really does the trick!!!

Easy to understand and can convert thousands of files at once!

 

[Macropod]

Since Office 2007 & later can all open Office 2003 & earlier files, meaning no conversion is needed to use them, one has to wonder what the need is to "convert thousands of files at once"???

 

[Cosmic Wizard]

Since Office 2007 & later can all open Office 2003 & earlier files, meaning no conversion is needed to use them, one has to wonder what the need is to "convert thousands of files at once"???

True, they can do this.

But we have a two contracts at the NSW DoE which expires in 2030 and 2032.
All our contract documents are on CDs and paper, so we are moving them over to an electronic system called TRIM.
What we wanted was to make the documents as current as possible, so that in 15 years times there would be no issues with compatibility or formatting.
We will need these documents for the make good of 20 schools which will run into millions.
It also looks a lot better in the new system to have all docs in the same year rather than every year under the sun.
Hope that explain the reasons why!

Below is a better and easy way of doing it! It also just an easy click on a button at the end of the page instead of putting in macros.

http://www.gmayor.com/document_batch_processes.htm

 

[Macropod]

But we have a two contracts at the NSW DoE which expires in 2030 and 2032.
All our contract documents are on CDs and paper, so we are moving them over to an electronic system called TRIM.
What we wanted was to make the documents as current as possible, so that in 15 years times there would be no issues with compatibility or formatting.

What will have happened as a result of the conversion, though, is that significant layout changes will have occurred. This is likely the invalidate such things as the pages referenced in Table of Contents entries, page cross-references, and so on.

FWIW, I am familiar with TRIM; it was originally developed by Tower Software for the Australian Electoral Commission.

It also looks a lot better in the new system to have all docs in the same year rather than every year under the sun.

I would be to differ. Unless it's done properly (which it seems your conversion process doesn't do), changing all the file dates destroys one of the key means of indexing and retrieving them. How now will you find a document that was originally created in, say, 2005 and last updated in, say, 2012?

 

[Cosmic Wizard]

What will have happened as a result of the conversion, though, is that significant layout changes will have occurred. This is likely the invalidate such things as the pages referenced in Table of Contents entries, page cross-references, and so on.

FWIW, I am familiar with TRIM; it was originally developed by Tower Software for the Australian Electoral Commission.

I would be to differ. Unless it's done properly (which it seems your conversion process doesn't do), changing all the file dates destroys one of the key means of indexing and retrieving them. How now will you find a document that was originally created in, say, 2005 and last updated in, say, 2012?

I am not changing the file dates, just what version of Word they are save in; i.e. 97 or 2016.
Sorry if I didn't make that clear!
Almost all the docs are construction documents such as plans or drawings, or legal correspondence.
They do not have table of contents.
These documents are yet to be place in TRIM, so the date of when they were transfer to TRIM is what will appear in the records, say 20 May 2018.
TRIM has only a few layers, Box, Program, Project, File, and then the documents.
The layout of files will be under their region, school name, Plans or Drawings or Correspondence, Mechanical or Electrical, and then the docs.
We also have a spreadsheet of all docs we are putting into TRIM in case we need to search for anything.
There is also in TRIM the Audit trail, and previous version function, which will bring back old versions of the same documents.
Hope that helps, I hope we have thought of everything, but you never know, thankyou.

 

[Macropod]

I am not changing the file dates, just what version of Word they are save in; i.e. 97 or 2016.

I have to wonder if you actually understand of what you're doing or its implications! When you change the Word format (which you're wrongly calling the Word version), you get a completely new file with the current date & time. Changing the Office version isn't simply a matter of changing the file's extension from, say, doc to docx; it means creating an entirely new file. Even if you add code to restore the file system's original date & time (which your "It also looks a lot better in the new system to have all docs in the same year rather than every year under the sun" suggests is not happening) the new document's metadata for the createdate & savedate will both contain the current date & time, and its printdate metadata will be wiped out, instead of retaining any of these values from the original file. And, as I said, the change in file format will also reformat the documents internally. Doing any of this to legal correspondence and contracts could come back to bite you.

TRIM doesn't require this. Having all the TRIM records show, say, 20 May 2018 is pretty useless if you want to access a file by the year the file was created or last updated, for example. And, with the documents yet to be placed in TRIM, and now existing in a different format plus the old version being deleted per post 1, how do you suppose TRIM will construct an audit trail to the previous version?

Should MS ever decide to deprecate support for the office 97-2003 file formats, you can expect those formats to be supported for some years after that announcement - and even that won't affect TRIM's ability to handle such files.