Using Windows XP, Perl 5.10.0, Win32 OLE, Excel 2003

1) Following code runs fine, just doesn't freeze pane of newly 
   created excel doc. The 2nd row is highlighted..is
   there something else to do make this happen?

  my $freeze_panes = $gExcel->ActiveSheet->Range("2:2")->Select;
  #$gSheet->Cells(2,2)->Select();
  $gExcel->ActiveSheet->{FreezePanes} = $TRUE;

2) On occasions users hang up excel such that they have to kill the 
   excel process with windows Task Manager. I'd like 
  to detect that excel is running. I've tried various 
   combinations with this. Any other ideas?

  $Excel = Win32::OLE->GetActiveObject('Excel.Application')
       || Win32::OLE->new('Excel.Application', 'Quit')) {


Thanks