title: How do I programmatically open a MS Word document without invoking the Document_Open macro
body: <p>I am trying to use Office Automation to open a word document.  The problem is that I would like to open it without invoking the Document_Open macro.  Is there a way to do this?</p>
  
  <p>The relevant line below is wordApp.Documents.Open()</p>
  
  <pre><code>Imports Microsoft.Office.Interop
  
  Public Class WordFunctions
    Public Shared Function ConvertToDoc(ByVal file As String) As Boolean
      Dim wordDoc As Word.Document
      Dim wordApp As Word.Application
  
      Try
          wordApp = CreateObject("Word.Application", "")
      Catch ex As Exception
          Return False
      End Try
  
      Try
          wordApp.Caption = "Automated Word Instance"
          wordApp.DisplayAlerts = Word.WdAlertLevel.wdAlertsNone
          wordDoc = wordApp.Documents.Open(FileName:=file, Visible:=False, ConfirmConversions:=False)
  
          wordDoc.SaveAs(FileName:=file + ".doc", FileFormat:=Word.WdSaveFormat.wdFormatDocument)
          wordDoc.Activate()
          wordDoc.Close()
          Return True
      Catch ex As Exception
          Return False
      Finally
          wordApp.Quit(SaveChanges:=False)
      End Try
    End Function
  End Class
  </code></pre>