Good points. I guess my model of this kind of code is not that it's going to be running on an individual's PC while they are actively doing other things. I was thinking of a headless Windows Server machine that also has MS Office on it, and Perl is doing automation of that Office. If the Win32::OLE code is an alternative to using the built in VBA code of the Office suite, then all of the advice given contrary to mine is absolutely reasonable.

I have used the visibility setting to see what's happening when debugging, but turning it off when doing a "production" run means that there is no possibility of me interfering with the automated operation (which, for complex multi-setp OLE operations, could happen). I agree it's a personal preference, and that's why I personally prefer it to be invisible once I've got something running properly. :)