Macro to convert all .txt files to .doc

[H1SOKA]

Hey guys,

Pretty simple question if you have the time.

I'm trying to figure out how you can convert a whole folder worth of text files to word documents.

I have about 50,000 documents that need to be converted from .txt to .doc

The converted files should keep their original filenames too.

Am I asking too much?

Thanks.

 

[Tetra201]

Maybe just

cd \Path\To\Your\Folder
ren *.txt *.doc

from the Windows Command Prompt?

 

[Macropod]

Maybe just

cd \Path\To\Your\Folder
ren *.txt *.doc

from the Windows Command Prompt?

Do note that while Word will treat such files as Word documents, they don't have the correct binary format for .doc files and other applications may not handle them correctly.

 

[Joe4]

Maybe just

cd \Path\To\Your\Folder
ren *.txt *.doc

from the Windows Command Prompt?

As Paul said, that doesn't do any sort of conversion, it just changes the file extension.

I once had a co-worker who thought you could convert Excel files to text files by changing the extension like that from "xls" to "txt", and couldn't understand why it didn't work. I told them, file extensions are arbitrary. They often give you a "clue" what the file type is, but you could conceivably change it to anything, even ".bob", and that doesn't change anything in the file at all. You are just changing the name of the file, that's it.

 

[Tetra201]

As Paul said, that doesn't do any sort of conversion, it just changes the file extension.

I once had a co-worker who thought you could convert Excel files to text files by changing the extension like that from "xls" to "txt", and couldn't understand why it didn't work. I told them, file extensions are arbitrary. They often give you a "clue" what the file type is, but you could conceivably change it to anything, even ".bob", and that doesn't change anything in the file at all. You are just changing the name of the file, that's it.

We don't know the purpose of the conversion.
If it's just to change the default program for opening the files, then the suggested solution will work -- MS Word will open the renamed files without any hesitation.
This, however, may not be the case for other applications, as Paul already pointed out.

 

[Joe4]

We don't know the purpose of the conversion.
If it's just to change the default program for opening the files, then the suggested solution will work -- MS Word will open the renamed files without any hesitation.
This, however, may not be the case for other applications, as Paul already pointed out.

True, but based on the question:

I'm trying to figure out how you can convert a whole folder worth of text files to word documents.

I am simply pointing out the fact that changing the file extension itself will not convert anything.
Changing the file extension may change the default program that opens it up, and then it might go through some default conversion that Word automatically deems, which may or may not be what they are after.

Just want to make sure that they know exactly what it will (and won't) do. As I said, I have seen people try this method before under the assumption that it would do something different.

 

[Tetra201]

Agree. In the strict sense, the suggested solution is not a conversion, but mere renaming.