Microsoft Word offers an inbuilt feature which allows you to merge multiple word documents into one file. If you work with various word files that need to be merged into one final document, it is going to be a handy option.

How to Merge Word Documents

The inbuilt feature is part manual but useful if you want to have full control on how the documents should be merged and inserted in the final document. To make it quick, make sure to keep the documents in one place. There are two ways to merge multiple Word documents — Part of a file or multiple files with or without bookmarks.

1] Merge Multiple Word Documents (Only bookmarked text)

If you only plan to add parts of documents, make sure to add bookmarks in the source document (Insert > Links > Bookmarks). I have explained how to manage and create bookmarks at the end. The only drawback is you will have to insert them one after the other.

Open the Word document where you need to add the rest of the documents.
Set the cursor where you want to insert the document.
Switch to Insert section, and click on the arrow icon next to Object under Text.
Select the “Text from file” menu.
It will open another window which allows you to select one or multiple files.
You also get to set a range (excel) or bookmark name (Word) if you only want to import only those sections of the document.
Click Insert, and it will copy either the full document or the bookmarked section into the final document.
Repeat the process with other documents you want to merge.

Now that you know how to insert a document, I want to help you understand one more concept—Bookmarking. It is crucial if you wish only to import part of the documents.

Open the source document, i.e., the one you want to import.
Select a set of paragraphs you wish to import.
Then click on Insert > Links > Bookmarks.
Name the bookmark which you can remember.

Do note if you do not select a text and bookmark it, then it will not be imported, or only the first line will get imported. That’s how it works. The image above shows bookmark “Merge4”, and a set of paragraphs are highlighted.

2] Merge Multiple Word Documents

The inbuilt tool allows you to select multiple files and import or merge Word Documents in bulk. The documents will merge in the same sequence you choose them, so make sure you name or arrange the sequence before importing. If you don’t, it will take a lot of time to rearrange them later.

If you want to merge multiple documents in one go, but with bookmarks, then here is a pro tip. Use the same name for all the bookmarks on all the documents. When you use the same name, then it will look for the corresponding bookmark in all the documents and import them one by one. Again, make sure to select them properly.

Merging multiple Word documents is easy compared to what we have seen with Excel files. You can choose to import part or full file one after the other.

I hope the post was easy to understand, and you will be able to merge the Word files.