use strict; 
use warnings;
use Win32::OLE;
# brings in constants like wdDocumentsPath
use Win32::OLE::Const 'Microsoft Word'; 
$Win32::OLE::Warn = 3; # reports OLE errors

my $word = Win32::OLE->GetActiveObject('Word.Application') 
     or Win32::OLE->new('Word.Application', 'Quit');

print "word is not running\n" unless defined $word;