Well, it's not perfect, but by breaking out the "Word" portion to it's own subroutine, I was able to make this work.

I'm guessing somehow two variables were stomping on each other...

Final code:

use strict;
# import OLE
use Win32::OLE qw(in with);
use Win32::OLE::Const;
use Win32::OLE::Const 'Microsoft Word';
$Win32::OLE::Warn = 3;   # report OLE runtime errors

my $pickupDir = 'C:\\p2exe\\word2txt';

my @ads = getAdNums();
collectAds(@ads);

#For the time being, assume that a list of ad numbers will be gathered
+ as an array.
sub getAdNums {
    my @AdNums = ("test");
    return @AdNums;
}

######################################################
# Read in word files and export as text docs
######################################################
sub collectAds {
    foreach my $ad (@_) {
        # Need docname and savename
        my $doc = "$pickupDir\\$ad.doc";
        my $savename = "$pickupDir\\$ad.txt";
        # Add check to make sure .doc file exists
        if (-e $doc) {
            wordToText($doc, $savename);

            my @info = get_file($savename);
            printArr(@info);
        }
    }
}

sub wordToText {
    my $input = shift; my $output = shift;
    print "Starting word\n";
    my $word = Win32::OLE->GetActiveObject('Word.Application') || Win3
+2::OLE->new('Word.Application', 'Quit');
    $word->{Visible}= 0; # we don't need to see Word in an active wind
+ow

    # open the specified Word doc
    print "Opening $input\n";
    $word->Documents->Open($input)
        or die("Unable to open document ", Win32::OLE->LastError());

    # save the file as a text file
    $word->ActiveDocument->SaveAs({
        FileName    =>    $output,
        FileFormat    =>    wdFormatDOSTextLineBreaks});

    # close document and Word instance
    print "Closing document and Word\n";
    $word->ActiveDocument->Close();
    $word->Quit;
}
########################################################
# Standard subs below
# Need to redo to get rid of unreferenced Scalar.

sub get_file {
        my $file = shift;
        local *IN;
        open (IN, "<$file") or die "Cannot read '$file': $!";
                if (wantarray) {
                return <IN>;
                } else {
                return join '', <IN>;
        }
}    

sub printArr {
    my $n = 0;
    foreach (@_) {print $n++.": $_\n"};        
}
[download]

Final output:

Starting word
Opening C:\p2exe\word2txt\test.doc
Closing document and Word
0: test

I have changed some of the code to make it easier for others to follow along... I am trying to change word docs to text... The output I get says:

Attempt to free unreferenced scalar at C:\p2exe\word2txt\debug_word2tx
+t.pl line 28.
Can't call method "Dispatch" on unblessed reference at (eval 1) line 1
+.
END failed--call queue aborted.
[download]

Line 28 is where the if clause starts checking the existence of the doc I am trying to convert. if (-e $doc) { I started testing chunks of code, and the word conversion works up until the point where I read in the text document with my "get_file" routine. (AKA if I comment out that line I get no error) But that is the same "get_file" routine I have used for years... And reading in a text doc without doing the Word part works fine...

I am stumped... I have tried changing variables, etc. Can anyone point me as to what I'm doing wrong? Thanks in advance for any help.

Code is below... "Test.doc" is a Word 2003 doc with just the word "test" in it.

Current error:

Attempt to free unreferenced scalar: SV 0x1ab2744, Perl interpreter: 0x2243f4 at C:\p2exe\word2txt\debug_word2txt.pl line 28.

use strict;
# import OLE
use Win32::OLE qw(in with);
use Win32::OLE::Const;
use Win32::OLE::Const 'Microsoft Word';
$Win32::OLE::Warn = 3;   # report OLE runtime errors

my $pickupDir = 'C:\\p2exe\\word2txt';

my @ads = getAdNums();
collectAds(@ads);

#For the time being, assume that a list of ad numbers will be gathered
+ as an array.
sub getAdNums {
    my @AdNums = ("test");
    return @AdNums;
}

######################################################
# Read in word files and export as text docs
######################################################
sub collectAds {
    foreach my $ad (@_) {
        # Need docname and savename
        my $doc = "$pickupDir\\$ad.doc";
        my $savename = "$pickupDir\\$ad.txt";
        # Add check to make sure .doc file exists
        if (-e $doc) {
            print "Starting word\n";
            my $word = Win32::OLE->GetActiveObject('Word.Application')
+ || Win32::OLE->new('Word.Application', 'Quit');
            $word->{Visible}= 0; # we don't need to see Word in an act
+ive window
    
            # open the specified Word doc
            print "Opening $doc\n";
            $word->Documents->Open($doc)
                or die("Unable to open document ", Win32::OLE->LastErr
+or());
        
            # save the file as a text file
            $word->ActiveDocument->SaveAs({
                FileName    =>    \$savename,
                FileFormat    =>    wdFormatDOSTextLineBreaks});
    
            # close document and Word instance
            print "Closing document and Word\n";
            $word->ActiveDocument->Close();
            $word->Quit;
            
            my @info = get_file($savename);
            printArr(@info);
        }
    }
}

########################################################
# Standard subs below
# Need to redo to get rid of unreferenced Scalar.

sub get_file {
        my $file = shift;
        local *IN;
        open (IN, "<$file") or die "Cannot read '$file': $!";
                if (wantarray) {
                return <IN>;
                } else {
                return join '', <IN>;
        }
}    

sub printArr {
    my $n = 0;
    foreach (@_) {print $n++.": $_\n"};        
}
[download]

Commenting out the "get_file" call outputs:

Starting word
Opening C:\p2exe\word2txt\test.doc
Closing document and Word

Commenting out the Word portion outputs:

0: test

Running the whole thing gives me:

Attempt to free unreferenced scalar: SV 0x1ab2744, Perl interpreter: 0x2243f4 at C:\p2exe\word2txt\debug_word2txt.pl line 28.