>Interesting. I was going to suggest creating the instance prior to the loop and quitting it after the loop is finished, but other than speed, I didn't see why it would make a difference, so I didn't bother. I guess in 650 creatings and closings, maybe the system can get a bit confused.

Yes, and not only that, but it also closes properly! That is, if the user has MS Word already opened on the desktop prior to running the program. If the user opens it after starting the program, it causes problems.