Perl - can't open file with Win32::OLE

Question

I'm trying to open a .docx file using the following code:

require Win32::OLE;
my $docfile = "C:/Users/me/Documents/file.docx";
my $Word = Win32::OLE->GetActiveObject('Word.Application');
unless ($Word) { $Word = Win32::OLE->new('Word.Application', sub {$_[0]->Quit;}) or die "oops\n"; }
$Word->{visible} = 1;
my $File = $Word->Documents->Open($docfile);
$File->PrintOut();
$File->Close(); 
$Word->Quit();

But i get the following error:

OLE exception from "Microsoft Word":

Sorry, we couldn’t find your file. Is it possible it was moved, renamed or deleted? (C://Users/me/Documents/...)

How can i fix this? Why does it add // to my path? (needless to say, the file does exist in the system and that is the correct path).

Thanks!

I've never worked with Win32::OLE so this is a guess. Maybe it wants backslashes in the path? — simbabque, Nov 17 '16 at 14:47
But be aware - you might need to escape them if you're double quoting. — Sobrique, Nov 17 '16 at 14:48
Which version of Word is this? I do not have the most recent version, but maybe it's trying to treat it as a UNC or something. In any case, what happens if you just use `my $docfile = join '\\', qw(C: Users me Documents file.docx);`? Also, `use Win32::OLE; $Win32::OLE::Warn = 3;` — Sinan Ünür, Nov 17 '16 at 14:48
Not everything on Windows will accept a `/` as a directory separator. You might have to write that as `my $docfile = 'C:\\Users\\me\\Documents\\file.docx';` The double slashes are necessary because ``\`` is the escape character. There's also the obvious question... are you *really sure* `C:\Users\me\Documents\file.docx` exists and is readable? Check it in the code with a `-r $docfile`. — Schwern, Nov 17 '16 at 16:03

Borodin · Accepted Answer · 2016-11-17T22:11:04.453

1

I suggest that you use canonpath from File::Spec::Function to normalise the file path and change the path separators to backslashes

Like this

use strict;
use warnings 'all';

use Win32::OLE;
use File::Spec::Functions 'canonpath';

my $docfile = "C:/Users/me/Documents/file.docx";
my $word    = Win32::OLE->GetActiveObject('Word.Application') or die;

$word->{visible} = 1;

my $file = $word->Documents->Open(canonpath($docfile)) or die;
$file->PrintOut;
$file->Close; 

$word->Quit;

edited Nov 17 '16 at 22:11

answered Nov 17 '16 at 16:16

Borodin

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With this solution, how can i print out to the console the contents of the file? (as text) – gambit20088 Nov 17 '16 at 17:18
You can only do with `Win32::OLE` things that you could do manually with the Word application. You can't display plain text from Word, so you can't do it this way either. – Borodin Nov 18 '16 at 01:39
Ok.. so how could i do it then? Should i create a new post? – gambit20088 Nov 18 '16 at 02:11
You could use Perl and `Win32::OLE` to **Save as...** your document to a text file, and then read and print that file in the same program. I've closed your question as being a duplicate of another that has an alternative solution. If you need more help then, yes, ask another question. – Borodin Nov 18 '16 at 02:32

Perl - can't open file with Win32::OLE

1 Answers1