What does the code around it look like when it is in the fail environment?

Is the word object declared in the same scope? Did you change working directories before trying to open the $template such that you are having a failure opening that file?

Set $Win32::OLE::Warn = 3; # Fail on errors in this conext:

use strict;
use Win32::OLE ;
use Win32::OLE::Const 'Microsoft Word';
$Win32::OLE::Warn = 3; # Fail on errors

my $Word = Win32::OLE->GetActiveObject('Word.Application')
    || Win32::OLE->new('Word.Application', 'Quit');
[download]

and then print Win32::OLE->LastError(); before you exit to get some error checking, in case you didn't have a fatal error.

C-.