Is Word ready for COM use

Question

I am talking to Word as a COM server in a program that makes documents with Word as the document engine.
The program can load Word on a user request  or switch to Word if Word is already loaded. At different sites Word may use one or several Word Addins. All the addins are dotm files and are in the Word startup folder. Observations show Word takes approximately
10 seconds to load the addins. Fewer addins results in a shorter load time.
One addin has macros the program uses in making documents. One way to load Word on request and manage it is to wait 10 sec before talking to Word. I am wondering if there are better ways?
1. When Word is loading will it respond to core requests such as "Is AddIN ABC loaded?"
2. Is there a way to ask Word "Are you open for business?"

Answer 1

Hi Russell
Well, one possible approach would be to start Word using a Command Line that does not load add-ins; you can find more information here:
http://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/210565
Another one is to isolate a command that's causing problems (returning an error) and check for that error in a loop. When it no longer occurs, the assumption would be that Word is ready.
<< am talking to Word as a COM server in a program that makes documents with Word as the document engine.>>
This isn't recommended or really supported, which is one reason Word doesn't expose the functionality you're looking for. The "correct" way to generate Word documents is to work directly with the Open XML file format, which doesn't require the
Word application at all. You can find more information at OpenXMLDeveloper.org
Cindy Meister, VSTO/Word MVP,
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