I'm not using NewObject, I use GetObject() instead. GetObject() activates an OLE automation object and creates a reference to the object.

loWord = GetObject(, "Word.Application")

IF (Type("loWord") = "C") AND Empty(loWord)
*-- Error
ELSE
*-- Do some work here
ENDIF

GetObject() return an empty string if an error occurs.

HTH

>That is what I am trying to avoid. Although it seems like the only way.
>
>On another note can you tell how you initialize your OLE call to Word97? I am currently using the following:
>
>oWord = NewObject( "Word.Application" )
>oWordDoc = NewObject( "Word.Document" )
>
>The oWord object can be a problem if for some reason Word is already active. Although it would not fail, it would return an invalid object.