Use Adobe Acrobat to Split a Mail Merge File into Separate Files With Custom File Names

Tags mail-merge

You can add a hidden field linked to an MS Excel data source to an Office 365's MS Word Mail Merge template, then use Adobe Acrobat Pro to split the merged file into its separate PDF files with unique file names based on the hidden field.

Do This First

  • Create your mail merge template in MS Word and connect it to the data source (Start Mail Merge, Select Recipients, Insert Merge Field). Make sure to include placeholder text for the Excel data fields you will be connecting to for the merge.
  • Install Adobe Acrobat Pro from the Creative Cloud app.
  • Create a folder in your OneDrive for the merged PDF file then create a subfolder within this folder for the individual PDF files. 
  • Prep your Excel data file and save the Excel file to your Onedrive using easily identifiable column headers that clearly identify each column's purpose.
  1. Include in your Excel data file these additional columns: 
  • A unique identifier column that is unique to each merge copy. For example, like a person's UWSP alias (e.g. spointer) if each copy is specific to a different individual. You will use this unique identifier to generate unique file names. 

If you intend to use Power Automate to email each individual file to their respective recipient, you will also need:

  • An Email Address column.
  • A column named something like “Filename” that contains your unique file name for each individual file. Each file name should include the value in the unique identifier field, any additional file name text, and the ".pdf" file extension.  We can use the CONCATENATE function to create this.

For example:

Function: =CONCATENATE("Spr25 donation thank you-",D2,".pdf") yields the file name: "Spr25 donation thank you-mibinkley.pdf".

  1. Convert the Excel data into a Table.
  • Click a cell inside the data.
  • On your keyboard press Ctrl+T.
  • In the Create Table box place a check in My table has headers then click OK.
  • Make sure that your cursor is still inside the new Table then on Excel's menu at the right select Table Design.
  • At the left on the Table Design ribbon type in a Table Name (no spaces, dashes and underscores are allowed).
  • Press Enter to assign the name.  A Table name is particularly useful if using Power Automate to send your mail merge emails.

 

Add a File Name With the Unique Identifier Field As Hidden Text to the Mail Merge Template

  1. At the very top of the mail merge template:
    • Add text that should be used as the file name when you create the separate PDF files. Insert the unique identifier column from your Excel data somewhere within this file name text.  e.g. "2025 Donation Thank You - <<Alias>>" .
      OR
    • If the intent is to use Power Automate to email each file to it's recipient, only insert the Filename merge field with no additional text.
  2. Select the file name merge field.
  3. On the Home tab change the style to Heading (or Heading 1 if this displays instead).
  4. To hide the file name text, drop the font size down to something small like 8 and change the font color to "white" (i.e. a color that matches the document background). 
  5. Make sure the mail merge template is set up the way you want, then run the mail merge using the following steps.

 

Run and Save the Mail Merge

  1. On Word's Mailings ribbon click Finish & Merge, then select, “Edit Individual Documents…”.  
  2. Select All in the Merge to New Document box and click OK. 
  3. On Word's menu click File and select Save As (do not select "Save as Adobe PDF"). 
  4. For your save location, select the Mail Merge folder you created earlier.
  5. Under "Save as type:", change your file type to PDF. 

IMPORTANT:  BEFORE YOU CLICK SAVE 

  1. Uncheck, "Open file after publishing", then click the Options... button. 
  2. In the Options box, check "Create bookmarks using:" and select Headings. 
  3. Click OK then Save your PDF.
  4. A single pdf file containing all recipient copies is now saved to your merge folder.

 

Split the Merged File Into Separate Files With Custom File Names

  1. Open the full version of Adobe Acrobat Pro (NOT Acrobat Reader).
  2. At the top-left select Menu then select Open... and open the PDF merge file. 
  3. Select All Tools at the left, then click Organize Pages. 
  4. Select Split. 
    1. For Split by, select "Top level bookmarks". 
    2. Click Output Options.
       
  5. For Output Options,
  • Select A Folder on My Computer and select the sub folder you created earlier. 
  • For File Labeling, select "Use bookmark names for file names". 
  • Uncheck, "Do not overwrite existing files". Uncheck this so that if you need to update your merge template then run your merge and Split again, you overwrite the previous pdf files created from the earlier Split.
  1. Click OK. 
  2. Click Split to create your separate PDFs. 

Open the sub folder you selected for the Split. You now have separate pdf files with custom file names. 

 

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