Word 2007 object model query - converting docx file to another format

[clover2411]

Hi there,

I'm finding the object model a little confusing and would greatly
appreciate it if someone could clarify.

I'm writing an app that will run on a server to convert a docx file to
PDF - I've successfully used an example I found to do this conversion.
However it physically opens up the Word application to do it - is
there a way to do this without opening Word? Seems like that should be
possible because it's not ideal to have Word open up on the server.

If that is possible, am I right in thinking I'll still need Word
installed on the server, or is it sufficient to just install the
appropriate DLLs to the GAC?

Thanks very much in advance!

 

[clover2411]

Addendum:

I've just found this article http://support.microsoft.com/kb/257757,
which answers some of my questions... so my new question is,
considering that all my conversion code does is call the following
Word methods, how 'safe' do you think it is to run this server-side?

wordApp.Documents.Open(...);
wordDoc.ExportAsFixedFormat(...);
((Word._Document)wordDoc).Close(...);
((Word._Application)wordApp).Quit(...);

I've set the Open() method to open as read-only, so I can't really see
there being any other user prompts that might pop up during the
process... or am I being totally naive in thinking this will run
unattended?