nice little utility sub, but i think you'll find this code's a bit cleaner.

note there's no need to check for OLE errors once Warn is set to die on errors. also, i think these comments are a bit friendlier.

use Win32::OLE qw(in with);
## avoid warnings while loading Win32::OLE::Const module
{ no warnings; use Win32::OLE::Const 'Microsoft Word' }


## WordToText - Convert a microsoft word file to a plain text file
## 
## Example: my $status = WordToText( $infile, $outfile );
## 
##   $infile  - absolute path to word document input
##   $outfile - absolute path to text file output
##
## returns 1 on success, dies on errors
sub WordToText
{
    my( $infile, $outfile ) = @_;
    die( (caller(0))[3] . ": invalid args" ) 
    unless defined $outfile;

    ## make word die on errors
    $Win32::OLE::Warn = 3;
    ## create a word object
    my $Word = Win32::OLE->GetActiveObject( 'Word.Application' )
        || Win32::OLE->new( 'Word.Application', 'Quit' );
    ## open the word document
    my $WordFile = $Word->Documents->Open( $infile );
    ## make word invisible
    $Word->{Visible} = 0;
    ## perform 'save as' in text mode (2)
    $Word->WordBasic->FileSaveAs( $outfile, 2 );
    ## close the file
    $WordFile->Close();
    return 1;
}
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~Particle *accelerates*