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Do you know how to get applications IDs ("Word.Application" in given example)? What if I will need Excel? Or InDesing?

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);
}

Find existing instance of Office Application

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Michał Woliński
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    What you mean by *application ID* BTW? – Rahul Oct 12 '15 at 07:35
  • Where are you starting from? That is: what information do you have from which you want to obtain the name? (PS. "Application Id" already has a meaning in COM: and it is another usage of GUID, these names are normally known as a "program ids, or more commonly *progid*. – Richard Oct 12 '15 at 07:38

1 Answers1

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You can find this information out with Microsoft's OLE/COM Object Viewer.

You can use the OLE/COM Object Viewer to view a control's interfaces. Tell me more...

e.g. going by the Word example, first expand the All Objects node:

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...then scroll down to Microsoft Word Application. The version independent ProgID will be shown on the right. Use that in your application.

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What if I will need Excel?

As before, scroll until you find Microsoft Excel Application.

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Here we can see it is Excel.Application. If you have multiple versions installed and wish to use a specific version, use the ProgId as shown in the ProgID field.

Note: If like me you encounter multiple entries, take the one that shows either a ProgID or VersionIndependentProgID.