Reusing Word instance

Question

Hi,

I have an application that needs to use MS Word to open a document and save it in a different format. If there is already an instance of Word open, I want to reuse this process, otherwise I want to create a new one. So every time my application needs this Word instance it calls the following code:

private Microsoft.Office.Interop.Word.Application GetActiveApplication()
        {
            Microsoft.Office.Interop.Word.Application app = null;

            try
            {
                app = System.Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal.GetActiveObject("Word.Application")
                    as Microsoft.Office.Interop.Word.Application;
            }
            catch (Exception ex)
            {
                // Log exception
            }

            if(app == null)
                   app = new Microsoft.Office.Interop.Word.Application();

            return (app);
        }

So if Word wasn't opened yet or if someone shut it down in the meantime, this will create a new instance; otherwise it reuses the existing.
This works well so far, but I was wondering if there is some cleanup code I should include here - whether for the case when I create a new instance or reuse the existing one? Just remember, I do not want to close the instance either way when I'm done with using it.

Thanks.

Answer 1

Dejan,

This forum is for the support of the Open Specifications Documentation. Your question does not seem relevant to this set of published specifications. It seems your question is better suited for the Innovate on Office Forum.

Dominic Michael Salemno
Senior Support Escalation Engineer
US-CSS DSC Protocols Team