Close only Word.Application Objects that were created by my program - ms-access

Question

So I'm working on a VBA function in Access 2010 that creates a Word.Application object and returns it. Later on I want to be able to close this object, however not if its a Word.Application object that was not started by my program.
Public myGlobalWordApp as Object
Public newWordAppInstCreated as Boolean
Function GetWordAppInstance(Optional isVisible As Boolean = False) As Object
newWordAppInstCreated = False
On Error Resume Next
Set myGlobalWordApp = GetObject(, "Word.Application")
If myGlobalWordApp = Nothing Then
myGlobalWordApp = CreateObject("Word.Application")
myGlobalWordApp.Visible = isVisible
newWordAppInstCreated = True
End If
Set GetWordAppInstance = myGlobalWordApp
End Function
I want to make a CloseWordAppInstance() Sub that closes the myGlobalWordApp application object BUT ONLY if my VBA code was the one to open it. Sometimes I'll have another Word document up that I'm looking at and I don't want that window to be closed.
I've looked at the Word 2010 Application documentation and I saw that there is a .Parent method that I can call. I imagine that I could use this to see if I can determine if my Access Document/Module/Application created the Word.Application object but I dont know how to reference the "current object" or know how to do the comparison. Any help on that step would be appreciated.
My only "impropper" way of doing this would be checking the Boolean flags that I attempted to make, but that wont work if I make a second object.
Alternatively if anyone knows a better way to do this process that would be great!

Answer 1

You need to make sure that after you have created a word instance, you keep its reference. You can then use the same reference to close the word instance.
Private myGlobalWordApp As Object
Public Function GetWordAppInstance(Optional isVisible As Boolean = False) As Object
On Error GoTo ErrH
If myGlobalWordApp Is Nothing Then
'' create a new word instance if one doesn't exist
Set myGlobalWordApp = CreateObject("Word.Application")
myGlobalWordApp.Visible = isVisible
Set GetWordAppInstance = myGlobalWordApp
Else
'' otherwise return the instance we have
Set GetWordAppInstance = myGlobalWordApp
End If
Exit Function
ErrH:
MsgBox "Error creating word instance!", vbExclamation
End Function
Public Sub CloseWordInstance()
If Not myGlobalWordApp Is Nothing Then
'' close our word instance
myGlobalWordApp.Quit False
Set myGlobalWordApp = Nothing
End If
End Sub
You should never need to use the myGlobalWordApp variable directly. You can instead call the GetWordAppInstance to get the word instance and the CloseWordInstance to safely close it. This would ensure that you don't ever overwrite the myGlobalWordApp variable and lose reference to the word instance.
Public Sub Test()
Dim myWordInst As Object, wdDoc As Object
Set myWordInst = GetWordAppInstance(True)
Set wdDoc = myWordInst.Documents.Add
' do something with this doc here
CloseWordInstance
End Sub