Word crashed after repeated XL macro use

[Ed]

I have an Excel macro that call a new instance of Word and creates a new
document, does some things in the doc, then closes the doc without saving
changes and sets the doc and Word app objects to nothing using
doc.Close SaveChanges:=wdDoNotSaveChanges
appWD.Quit
Set doc = Nothing
Set appWD = Nothing

I used the macro this morning repeatedly - perhaps 30 times in succession.
(Each time had to be an individual call - there was no way to loop this.)
After doing all that, I did not check to see if there were any open
instances of Word left (there were none during testing, so I didn't think I
should have to) or other issues. Then I tried to open a Word document with
an AutoOpen macro, and Word crashed. Subsequent attempts produced further
crashes. I wound up eventually having to rebuild Normal to get things
moving again.

Question: Could just repeatedly accessing the Word app have caused this?
Is there a better way to avoid these issues in the future?

Ed

 

[Jim Cone]

Ed,

There are a couple of things that could be confusing to the applications...

How would Word or Excel read: appWD.doc.Close...?
Is appWD the document or is doc the document?
Maybe doc is not the best choice for a Word object variable.

Since wdDoNotSaveChanges is not an Excel constant and you are
running the program from Excel, you should qualify the constant... appWD.wdDoNotSaveChanges
--
Jim Cone
San Francisco, USA
http://www.realezsites.com/bus/primitivesoftware



I have an Excel macro that call a new instance of Word and creates a new
document, does some things in the doc, then closes the doc without saving
changes and sets the doc and Word app objects to nothing using
doc.Close SaveChanges:=wdDoNotSaveChanges
appWD.Quit
Set doc = Nothing
Set appWD = Nothing

I used the macro this morning repeatedly - perhaps 30 times in succession.
(Each time had to be an individual call - there was no way to loop this.)
After doing all that, I did not check to see if there were any open
instances of Word left (there were none during testing, so I didn't think I
should have to) or other issues. Then I tried to open a Word document with
an AutoOpen macro, and Word crashed. Subsequent attempts produced further
crashes. I wound up eventually having to rebuild Normal to get things
moving again.

Question: Could just repeatedly accessing the Word app have caused this?
Is there a better way to avoid these issues in the future?

Ed

 

[Ed]

Thanks for the response, Jim, and sorry for the confusion. The objects are
declared with:
Dim appWD As New Word.Application
Dim doc As Word.Document
and set with:
Set appWD = CreateObject("Word.Application")
appWD.Visible = False
Set doc = appWD.Documents.Add

My assumption was that Excel VBA would thereafter recognize "doc" as having
Word properties and methods, so
doc.Close SaveChanges:=wdDoNotSaveChanges
should be recognized. Is this an inaccurate assumption?

Ed

 

[Jim Cone]

Ed,

re: "so doc.Close SaveChanges:=wdDoNotSaveChanges
should be recognized. Is this an inaccurate assumption?"

Yes, however you may have lucked out.
Since the constant's value in Word is 0 (zero), that may the
value being assigned when Excel can't read it.
However, Excel should be throwing an error.
Unless... there is an "on error resume next" someplace.
--
Jim Cone
San Francisco, USA
http://www.officeletter.com/blink/specialsort.html


Thanks for the response, Jim, and sorry for the confusion. The objects are
declared with:
Dim appWD As New Word.Application
Dim doc As Word.Document
and set with:
Set appWD = CreateObject("Word.Application")
appWD.Visible = False
Set doc = appWD.Documents.Add

My assumption was that Excel VBA would thereafter recognize "doc" as having
Word properties and methods, so
doc.Close SaveChanges:=wdDoNotSaveChanges
should be recognized. Is this an inaccurate assumption?

Ed

 

[Ed]

Unless... there is an "on error resume next" someplace.
Wow, Jim! You are _good_!! As a matter of fact, the whole end of the macro
is
CleanUp:
On Error Resume Next
doc.Close SaveChanges:=wdDoNotSaveChanges
appWD.Quit
Set doc = Nothing
Set appWD = Nothing
On Error GoTo 0
End Sub

The intention was that if an error is thrown early into the macro, like
after setting the Word app object but not the document object, I could drop
here to close out any object still remaining without causing more errors
because I'm trying to manipulate an object that doesn't exist.

Perhaps better would be to explicitly label the doc variable as belonging to
the Word application when I close?
CleanUp:
On Error Resume Next
appWD.doc.Close SaveChanges:=wdDoNotSaveChanges
appWD.Quit
Set doc = Nothing
Set appWD = Nothing
On Error GoTo 0
End Sub

 

[Jim Cone]

Ed,
re: "appWD.doc.Close SaveChanges:=wdDoNotSaveChanges"

No, don't do that, you are right back to problem I pointed out
in my first message.
The simplest way is to just use the constant's value...
doc.Close SaveChanges:=0
or the more self-explanatory way...
doc.Close SaveChanges:=AppWD.wdDoNotSaveChanges

Of course, all of this may not mean much if your app still crashes.
Regards,
Jim Cone

Unless... there is an "on error resume next" someplace.

Wow, Jim! You are _good_!! As a matter of fact, the whole end of the macro
is
CleanUp:
On Error Resume Next
doc.Close SaveChanges:=wdDoNotSaveChanges
appWD.Quit
Set doc = Nothing
Set appWD = Nothing
On Error GoTo 0
End Sub

The intention was that if an error is thrown early into the macro, like
after setting the Word app object but not the document object, I could drop
here to close out any object still remaining without causing more errors
because I'm trying to manipulate an object that doesn't exist.

Perhaps better would be to explicitly label the doc variable as belonging to
the Word application when I close?
CleanUp:
On Error Resume Next
appWD.doc.Close SaveChanges:=wdDoNotSaveChanges
appWD.Quit
Set doc = Nothing
Set appWD = Nothing
On Error GoTo 0
End Sub

 

[Jezebel]

Not sure that this is entirely the cause of the problem, but your object
declaration and instantation are screwy. You're using early binding for the
declaration itself, but using late binding for the instantiation; and using
'as new' in the declaration is a recipe for disaster. (Some coding shops
have an absolute ban on the use of 'as new'.) As it is, this statement

Set appWD = CreateObject("Word.Application")

will instantiate TWO copies of Word: one created automatically for the first
use of appWD, and one from the CreateObject statement.

Try ---

Dim appWD as Word.Application

on error resume next
set appWD = Word.Application 'Get existing instance if any
on error goto ErrorHandler

if appWD is nothing then 'No existing instance,
so create a new one
set appWD = new Word.Application
end if



Two other issues that might be relevant --

1) Word may refuse to close if there were unhandled errors in the course of
your code.
2) There may be other code, from normal.dot or an add-in, that is
interfering.

After you've run your macro, check the Task Manager to see if there are any
remaining instances of Word.

 

[Jim Cone]

Nice catch.
Jim Cone
San Francisco, USA

"Jezebel"
<[email protected]>
wrote in message
Not sure that this is entirely the cause of the problem, but your object
declaration and instantation are screwy. You're using early binding for the
declaration itself, but using late binding for the instantiation; and using
'as new' in the declaration is a recipe for disaster. (Some coding shops
have an absolute ban on the use of 'as new'.) As it is, this statement

Set appWD = CreateObject("Word.Application")

will instantiate TWO copies of Word: one created automatically for the first
use of appWD, and one from the CreateObject statement.

Try ---

Dim appWD as Word.Application

on error resume next
set appWD = Word.Application 'Get existing instance if any
on error goto ErrorHandler

if appWD is nothing then 'No existing instance,
so create a new one
set appWD = new Word.Application
end if

Two other issues that might be relevant --
1) Word may refuse to close if there were unhandled errors in the course of
your code.
2) There may be other code, from normal.dot or an add-in, that is
interfering.
After you've run your macro, check the Task Manager to see if there are any
remaining instances of Word.

 

[Ed]

Wow! Thanks, Jezebel. I owe you big for that one! I guess I need to go
back and brush up on some things - and see what other bad habits I've let
get in here.

Ed

 

[Ed]

Jezebel and Jim:

Just ran the Excel macro again, about 25 times through. No leftovers this
time! Then I launched Word and macros run fine there. Thank you both for
your help with this.

Ed