The easiest way to do that is to scan your document. This will allow you to
export the scan as a spreadsheet. After scanning, set the document type up
as a spreadsheet. I use Omni Page for this all the time.

That is not a option but thanks - I have a hundred or so Word files
that I want to put into Excel so I can use the data that is contained
in the files.

well personally i'll need to have more information.. is the data in the word
document in a table? is the word  doc a form? is it a paragraph that will be
just entered into a cell? depending on how the data is will depend on the best
way to do it...

The document information  that I am trying to retrieve is a packing
slip type form in Word - you tab to the fields (and because I did not
create the form )- I believe that they used a table to create  the
area where you place the information in - I would like to import  this
information into excel  so we can create a log - Because we didn't
have a log know one knows what is in the file  until your open it.
Which means you would have to open hundreds of documents to find what
you are looking for.

I am not sure my reply made it so excuse me If I double post -

Because I did not create  the file  I am not sure how they created the
document - It is a packing slip and it appears as though they used a
table to set it up - You tab to the field and enter the information  -
The reason that I want to get the information is because they never
created a log for these files and if you want to find out what is in
the document you have to open hundreds of documents to find the one
that you want because they are saved with a Packing list number and
no description.

So basically, I am trying to create a log file by importing the
information from the directory in the files to Excel -

> Because I did not create  the file  I am not sure how they created the
> document ...

This, you are going to have to find out. Retrieving the information  from
the DOC file will require an intimate knowledge of how the document is
formatted, and what differences (if any) there are between the various
documents.

You either need to talk to the people who set it up in the first place, or
else you'll need to turn on all view options you can find and work out how
the document hangs together. (Actually, you'll need to do the latter
anyway.)

If the information is in a table, it will be retrieved differently to (and
probably more easily than) information in the main text of the DOC file.

However, both can be done, without too much difficulty. You just need to
specify the exact actions needed to locate and select the information you
need to retrieve. From Excel, you will be able to search for and select
text using the same sorts of actions you can use from the keyboard directly
into Word.

Once you know exactly what you need to do in Word, ask here again. I'm sure
there are people who have done something similar. (I haven't moved text in
this direction, but I have gone from excel  to Word on many occasions and
have some understanding of how to grab things out of Word.)

Ohh... how disappointing!
I just KNEW I'd seen this topic in this group, so when my boss said
he needed to find a way of "extracting" specific data from 3,000 Word
files and enter it into an excel  file, I told him that it would be a
piece fo cake...

Now, I find that the thread isn't complete!

From what I've seen elsewhere, A BRUTE FORCE method would be to
programatically open each word  File, Save it as text, close the file.
Open the Txt file  as a text stream object, and loop through the data.
In my case, i'm looking for a specific string of characters.
If found, then I extract the entire line (which is tab delimited)
and insert it into the next line in the Excel sheet.

Now, another approach I'm pursuing is a bit less brutal.
I created a macro in which I select the entire document content
(selection.wholestory) then use split() to store it in an array.
Then, search through the array for the string in question.
(In this case, I'm looking for a 'tab' character followed by the
letters "AD")
Sub Macro1()
Dim TxtArray, i
Selection.WholeStory
' MsgBox Selection.Text
TxtArray = Split(Selection.Text, Chr(13))
' MsgBox UBound(TxtArray)
For i = 0 To UBound(TxtArray)
If (InStr(1, TxtArray(i), Chr(9) & "AD") > 0) Then
MsgBox TxtArray(i)
End If
Next i
End Sub
This seems to work... so now I have to see if I can put it all in an
EXCEL VBA module...

Any of you know of a "cleaner" way?

i have an idea or two... but need a little more info... first how big are these
files.. witl that tab - ad only appear once in each document? is it in a table
form?

But perhaps the answers to my questions will help you too!

From the samples I've tested (less than 1% of the total number of files)
they all seem to be small. less than 10 sheets, file  sizes less than 100kb.

the 'tab-AD' string will appear multiple times throughout the document.
these documents seem to be pseudo-forms.
That is, they seem to be tabular, but without the tables. merely tab delimited.