Loop over PDF files and transform them into doc with word
Any language that can read PDF files and write Word docs (which are XML) can do this, but the conversion you like (which Word does when the PDF is opened) will require using an API for the application itself. VBA is your easy option.
The snippets you've posted (and my samples below) use early binding and enumerated constants, which means we need a reference to the Word object library. That is already set up for any code you write in a Word document, so create a new Word document and add the code in a standard module. (See this Excel tutorial if you need more details, the steps for our process are the same).
You can run your macro from the VB Editor (using the Run button) or from the normal document window (click the Macros button on the View tab in Word 2010-2016). Save your document as a DOCM file if you want to reuse the macro without setting up the code again.
Now for the code!
As stated in comments, your second snippet is valid if you just ensure that your folder paths end with a backslash "\" character. It's still not great code after you fix that, but that'll get you up and running.
I'll assume you want to go the extra mile and have a well-written version of this you could repurpose or expand upon later. For simplicity, we'll use two procedures: the main conversion and a procedure to suppress the PDF conversion warning dialog (controlled by the registry).
Main procedure:
Sub ConvertPDFsToWord2() Dim path As String 'Manually edit path in the next line before running path = "C:\users\username\work_dir_example\" Dim file As String Dim doc As Word.Document Dim regValPDF As Integer Dim originalAlertLevel As WdAlertLevel'Generate string for getting all PDFs with Dir command 'Check for terminal \ If Right(path, 1) <> "\" Then path = path & "\" 'Append file type with wildcard file = path & "*.pdf" 'Get path for first PDF (blank string if no PDFs exist) file = Dir(file) originalAlertLevel = Application.DisplayAlerts Application.DisplayAlerts = wdAlertsNone If file <> "" Then regValPDF = TogglePDFWarning(1) Do While file <> "" 'Open method will automatically convert PDF for editing Set doc = Documents.Open(path & file, False) 'Save and close document doc.SaveAs2 path & Replace(file, ".pdf", ".docx"), _ fileformat:=wdFormatDocumentDefault doc.Close False 'Get path for next PDF (blank string if no PDFs remain) file = Dir LoopCleanUp: On Error Resume Next 'Ignore errors during cleanup doc.Close False 'Restore registry value, if necessary If regValPDF <> 1 Then TogglePDFWarning regValPDF Application.DisplayAlerts = originalAlertLevelEnd Sub
Registry setting function:
Private Function TogglePDFWarning(newVal As Integer) As Integer'This function reads and writes the registry value that controls'the dialog displayed when Word opens (and converts) a PDF file Dim wShell As Object Dim regKey As String Dim regVal As Variant 'setup shell object and string for key Set wShell = CreateObject("WScript.Shell") regKey = "HKCU\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\" & _ Application.Version & "\Word\Options\" 'Get existing registry value, if any On Error Resume Next 'Ignore error if reg value does not exist regVal = wShell.RegRead(regKey & "DisableConvertPdfWarning") On Error GoTo 0 'Break on errors after this point wShell.regwrite regKey & "DisableConvertPdfWarning", newVal, "REG_DWORD" 'Return original setting / registry value (0 if omitted) If Err.Number <> 0 Or regVal = 0 Then TogglePDFWarning = 0 Else TogglePDFWarning = 1 End IfEnd Function
As others have stated, the problem seems to lie mostly with the path & file name. Here is the second version of the code you posted with some changes.
Unfortunately, a warning message pops up and setting DisplayAlerts to false will not suppress it. But if you click the "don't show this message again" checkbox the first time it pops up, then it will not continue to pop up for every file.
Sub convertToWord() Dim MyObj As Object Dim MySource As Object Dim file As String Dim path As String path = "C:\Users\username\work_dir_example\" file = Dir(path & "*.pdf") Do While (file <> "") Documents.Open FileName:=path & file With ActiveDocument .SaveAs2 FileName:=Replace(path & file, ".pdf", ".docx"), _ FileFormat:=wdFormatXMLDocument .Close End With file = Dir LoopEnd Sub