There are only a couple of issues I have with the Win32::OLE path:-

1. I've tried going down the OLE path from within an Access database. It's time for a coffee break every time you want to read a set of document properties.
2. I want to batch process these files overnight on a UNIX server, logging the document properties to a database as I went.

I am undecided now whether I should bother at all. Back to the Visual Basic maybe :(