Loading word from excel takes an age!!! I was doing a project that I
thought about doing the same thing as you are describing (I think???) I
found that even when I got it working it took almost a minute or longer
for word to actually open.

I ended up just adding a new worksheet and formatting it the same as
the word document and it looks just as good as the word doc, it runs
like lightening and it was an awful lot easier to write the code.

I know this isn't exactly the answer you are after but I thought I
would give you the info as when I was faced with this it is what I
ended up doing.

Hope you find your answer...

S