HOW TO close Excel instance started by mail merge - excel

Question

HOW TO close Excel instance started by mail merge
this code running inside launcher does not have access to Excel running via DDE ??
'For i = 1 To Workbooks.Count
' MsgBox ("here" + Workbooks(i).Name)
'If (Workbooks(i).Name <> ActiveWorkbook.Name) Then
'Workbooks(i).Close
'End If
'Next i

Answer 1

You can kill the excel process like so: (from http://www.dreamincode.net/code/snippet1543.htm)
//Namespaces needed
using System.Diagnostics;
public bool FindAndKillProcess(string name)
{
//here we're going to get a list of all running processes on
//the computer
foreach (Process clsProcess in Process.GetProcesses()) {
//now we're going to see if any of the running processes
//match the currently running processes by using the StartsWith Method,
//this prevents us from incluing the .EXE for the process we're looking for.
//. Be sure to not
//add the .exe to the name you provide, i.e: NOTEPAD,
//not NOTEPAD.EXE or false is always returned even if
//notepad is running
if (clsProcess.ProcessName.StartsWith(name))
{
//since we found the proccess we now need to use the
//Kill Method to kill the process. Remember, if you have
//the process running more than once, say IE open 4
//times the loop thr way it is now will close all 4,
//if you want it to just close the first one it finds
//then add a return; after the Kill
clsProcess.Kill();
//process killed, return true
return true;
}
}
//process not found, return false
return false;
}

Answer 2

Excel can be closed via VBA, if called from within Excel
Application.Quit
If called from outside Excel, you will need to set a reference to Excel and then close it.
Set appExcel = GetObject(, "Excel.Application")
appExcel.Quit
You need to ensure that all Workbooks are closed or saved, otherwise Excel will prompt the user to save.