Thanks for all of your help. Using the following I'm able now to open
Word.Basic. using the following

#DEFINE wdPaperLetter 2
oWord = CREATEOBJECT("Word.Basic") &&Is the BASIC functions
oWord.AppShow()
oWord.AppMaximize()
oWord.FileNewDefault()
oWord.TogglePortrait
oWord.FilePageSetup.PaperSize = wdPaperLetter

I still get though "Member FILEPAGESETUP does not evaluate to an object."
as an error.

It seems like I must be making some small error in syntax as the other
functions are working fine. Only the last line

oWord.FilePageSetup.PaperSize = wdPaperLetter

continues to give me an error.