2 Best Ways to Combine Microsoft Word Documents

The easiest way to combine two Microsoft Word documents is to copy and paste the content from one to the other. However, this is not efficient if the documents have several pages and different formatting. Fortunately, Microsoft Word now offers two features that make it easy to combine Word documents.

Features including Object and Combine are available in the Microsoft Word Ribbon. Both methods work for documents created in Word 2010, Word 2013, Word 2016, Word 2019 and Word for Mac. They are also compatible with Microsoft 365. Here’s how to use each feature to merge your Word documents.

Using the Object Property in Microsoft Word

For this method, you will use the Object property on Microsoft Word. The object property is commonly used to embed files such as images, PDFs or tables in a Word document. However, the contents of these files can also be exported to Word. Check out the steps below to find out how:

Stage 1: Start the Microsoft Word file that you want to be the main document.

Step 2: Move the cursor to the part of the document where you want to add the content of the other document.

Stage 3: Click the Add tab next to the Home tab at the top of the window.

Step 4: Go to the Text section and click on the dropdown next to the Object icon.

Step 5: Click Object from the drop-down menu to launch a dialog.

Step 6: Click Create From File from the Object dialog.

Step 7: If you’re working with a Windows computer, select Browse. On the other hand, if you’re using a Mac, choose From File.

Step 8: Navigate to the document’s location or documents that contain the content you need to add to the existing document.

Step 9: Select the document or documents and click OK if you are using a Windows computer. Click Add for Mac.

When you do this, the content of the document or the documents you selected will appear in the current document. If you don’t want to merge documents at the same time, you can do this as many times as you want.

Using the Merge Feature in Microsoft Word

The second option is to take advantage of the Combine feature. This method is useful when several people are working on the same document and you now have different versions of the document. You can use the Merge feature to combine these different versions of your document.

The process is slightly different from using the Object property described above. Check out the steps below to understand how to use the join feature:

Stage 1: Start Microsoft Word.

Step 2: Click the Review tab in the Microsoft Ribbon.

Stage 3: Select Compare from the list of available options.

Step 4: Click Merge from the drop-down options to start a dialog.

Step 5: In the dialog, click the drop-down list under the Original document section.

Step 6: Click Browse to launch File Explorer and select the original version of the document to merge.

Step 7: In the dialog, click the drop-down list under the Revised document section.

Step 8: Click Browse to launch File Explorer and select the revised version of the document to merge.

Step 9: If you are using a Windows computer, click More. For Mac Click the Down arrow. This action provides a number of optional settings that help you decide how you want to combine both files. It also determines how changes will appear in the new document.

Step 10: Once done, click OK and the documents will merge. You should see the files side by side and a log of all revisions and all relevant details.

Merge Changes

It’s out there on how to merge documents in Microsoft Word. Of course, that’s easier if you just need to concatenate the text. You should be careful when there is more than one item in both documents.

Both methods shown are fairly simple and allow you to create a single document. You can also use the Merge feature to compare and merge PowerPoint Presentations.