Writing Word Macros, Second Edition

The Task Object

A Task object represents a currently running Windows application (not just Microsoft Word). Task objects are kept in the Tasks collection.

One of the more useful properties of a Task object is the Name property. For instance, the following code prints (to the Immediate window) the names of all of the currently running tasks:

	Dim t as Task
	For Each t in Tasks
	   Debug.Print t.Name
	Next t

You might find it amusing to run this code on your system. You will probably see some rather bizarre looking tasks.

On a more useful note, the Tasks collection has a method called Exists that indicates whether a certain task is running. For instance, the following code determines whether Microsoft Excel is running. If so, the code activates Excel and maximizes it; if not, the code starts Excel using the VBA Shell function, whose purpose is to run an executable program (the path is correct for my PC):

	If Tasks.Exists("Microsoft Excel") = True Then
	    Tasks("Microsoft Excel").Activate
	    Tasks("Microsoft Excel").WindowState = wdWindowStateMaximize
	Else
	    Shell "I:\Office97\Excel\Excel.exe", vbMaximizedFocus
	End If