Will I be forced to learn how to code Visual Basic?

You might have to learn how to read it at least. One way to get going with Win32::OLE for MS Word is to use the macro record facility in Word to record some keystrokes (eg: edit-select all); then hit Alt-F11 to open up the macro editor; the convert VB to Perl by changing '.' to '->', putting curly braces around property names and putting $ signs in the right places :-)

To be pedantic, the macro language in Word is VBA which is different from 'full-blown' VB and different again from VBScript.