Error 462: The remote server machine does not exist when working with Word via Excel VBA

Question

I open a Word file programmatically in Excel VBA and add/edit contents using bookmarks.

I find that on alternate runs, I get

Error 462: The re

Answer 1

You have two unqualified references to Word objects:

objSelection.Style = ActiveDocument.Styles("Heading 1")

which appears twice, needs to be:

objSelection.Style = objWord.ActiveDocument.Styles("Heading 1")

Otherwise you're creating an implicit reference to Word that you can't destroy in your code.

Answer 2

[SOLVED] Err 462 – "The remote server machine does not exist or is unavailable"

ErrResume:
    On Error GoTo ErrPaste
        Set objDoc = objWord.Documents.Open(ExistingEvidenceDoc)
    On Error GoTo 0

ErrPaste:
  'The remote server machine does not exist or is unavailable
    If Err.Number = 462 Then
        Set wdApp = CreateObject("Word.Application")
        Resume ErrResume
    End If

Answer 3

You should first ensure there are no oprhan winword.exe in task manager. Kill then or log out/in to get rid of them.

Then you should add something like this code to the end to 'explcitly' close word:

(I'm not sure of the exact syntax, hopefully you can work it out)

IF Not(objWord Is Nothing) Then

    objWord.Close(False)
    Set objWord = Nothing

End If

You should add something similar to your error handler.

What often happens is during development and debugging, sometimes word doesn't get closed properly and 'orphan' processes hang around even though they are not visible.

You may also wish to use

Set objWord = New Word.Application

instead of

Set objWord = CreateObject("Word.Application")

as that gives you autocomplete etc.

But there area advantages to each way.