Open Word Document Run-time error '424': Object required - vba

Question

I have a set of functions in an Access database where I am generating Word documents based on a fixed template in a folder.
I am doing this with the function shown below. For easier maintenance, I would like to be able to define the Word-template paths as public constants in the begining of my module. And therefore, I have been trying to create the adjusted function below.
Original function:
Function MyFunc(rs as DAO.Recordset)
Dim objWord As Object
Dim objDoc As Object
...
Set objWord = CreateObject("Word.Application")
Set objDoc = objWord.Documents.Open("C:\test_template.docx")
...
End Function
Adjusted function:
Public Const ReminderOneTemplate As Variant = "C:\test_template.docx"
...
Function MyFunc(rs as DAO.Recordset)
Dim objWord As Object
Dim objDoc As Object
...
Set objWord = CreateObject("Word.Application")
for the Word.Documents.Open method in the next, subsequent line of code I have tried this:
Set objDoc = objWord.Documents.Open(ReminderOneTemplate)
...
End Function
and
Set objDoc = objWord.Documents.Open(Chr(34) & ReminderOneTemplate & Chr(34))
...
End Function
But the function keeps returning Run-time error '424' Object required when I use a constant as input to the Word.Documents.Open method.
Can anyone explain why this is the case and what I am doing wrong. Is it not possible to pass a Constant to the Word.Open method?
Thanks.

Answer 1

I refactored your function, using the following sub procedure to test the basic code of creating a Word instance, and then opening an existing document using a constant for the document name.
I used Office 2007 to test the code, and everything worked fine. I don't see anything wrong with your code, what version of Access and Word are you using? Notice that I added some code to test whether the objWord variable is actually assigned a value by the call to CreateObject. I would suggest 2 things to help try to resolve the problem you are having:
1. use a String for the filename. I know the documentation for the Open method of the Documents collection says that the filename argument is a Variant, but the code does seem to work better if it is a String.
2. Make sure you set the instance of Word to be visible, otherwise you clutter up your system with invisible instances of Word (which will not be listed in Task Manager) and the only way to get rid of them is to restart the computer. If the Word instance is visible, you can switch to it and see if Word is displaying any error messages.
You may notice that the Word document my code opens is a macro-enabled .docm file. I did this because I tested whether a document with an Open event-handler that caused a runtime error would show the error message in the code in Access, but it does not.
When I first ran the code with the constant declared as a Variant, I did get an error, but not the Object required error that is giving you a problem. I then noticed that when I re-opened the Word document in Word, that I got an error message from Word that "the last time this document was opened it caused a serious error, are you sure you want to continue to open the document?" I would suggest you make sure that you can open your Word document in Word without errors or problems. I also suggest you add code similar to what I have in the example below to ensure that the objWord variable is indeed being initialized by the CreateObject method -- if CreatObject is failing to create an instance of Word, then objWord will still be Nothing, and might then produce an object required runtime error. (problems in the Registry can make CreateObject fail.)
I'm really sorry, but I have no idea why you are getting the error you are getting. I think if you redeclare the constant as a String, and ensure that you make the Word instance visible, that your code will work! The only problem I had when testing was that the document failed to open until I added the code to make the Word instance visible. But I did not get the same error that you are trying to overcome.
I have develop a library of Access VBA code for exactly this type of task -- using code in Access to create instances of Word, Excel, and to open documents and worksheets. If you think looking at a code library designed to provide easily called procedures and functions for inter-operability among MS Office applications, you can download it from here: [http://www.didjiman.com/business/vbademo/libMSOffice.htm] The code in the library has been tested to work in all versions of MS Office from 2003 though 2016, and is released to the public under the Gnu public license. The code is in a zip archive that contains an Access .accdb file with all the code, and a PDF document discussing the functions and procedures, and how to use them, along with complete code listings.
Public Const ReminderOneTemplate As String = "C:\users\matthew\documents\temp\test document1.docm"
Sub testWord_DocOpen()
Dim objWord As Object
Dim objDoc As Object
Set objWord = CreateObject("Word.Application")
objWord.Visible = True 'make the Word application window visible
objWord.Application.WindowState = 1 'maximize the Word application window
If (objWord Is Nothing) Then
Debug.Print "Word object NOT initialized."
End If
Set objDoc = objWord.Documents.Open(ReminderOneTemplate)
End Sub