Find existing instance of Office Application

Question

Is there any way to get existing instance of MS Publisher as Microsoft.Office.Interop.Publisher.Application?

I've found this:

System.Diagnostics.Process.GetProcessesByName("Microsoft Publisher")

So I can check if this is already running, but how to convert it to MS Publisher application? So I can call Microsoft.Office.Interop.Publisher.Application.Open for e.g.?

Could you please clarify what do you mean by call Application.Open? What do you need to do? — ninjaboy, Jul 11 '15 at 21:03
Search term - [ROT (running objects table)](http://www.bing.com/search?q=c%23+running+object+table). — Alexei Levenkov, Jul 11 '15 at 21:14

score 9 · Accepted Answer · answered Jul 11 '15 at 21:17

9

You could try this Microsoft getActiveObject. Here's an example.

    object word;
    try
    {
        word = System.Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal.GetActiveObject("Word.Application");
//If there is a running Word instance, it gets saved into the word variable
    }
    catch (COMException)
    {
//If there is no running instance, it creates a new one
        Type type = Type.GetTypeFromProgID("Word.Application");
        word = System.Activator.CreateInstance(type);
    }

Hope i helped!

answered Jul 11 '15 at 21:17

McLinux

263
1
10

Can I this way use `object` as `Microsoft.Office.Interop.Word.Application`? – Michał Woliński Jul 12 '15 at 18:06
I'm glad that i helped you! – McLinux Jul 12 '15 at 18:22
The link to **Microsoft getActiveObject** is broken. Here is the right link: [Marshal.GetActiveObject](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/api/system.runtime.interopservices.marshal.getactiveobject?view=netframework-4.8) – Yeshurun Kubi Aug 10 '20 at 12:03

Find existing instance of Office Application

1 Answers1

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