How to use Microsoft Office 2013 javascript API in standalone script

Question

I have Microsoft Office 2013 installed in a Windows 7 machine. After several searches could not find and example or tutorial that shows how to use standalone JavaScript for scripting Microsoft Office 2013, that is without integrating it in a web page (HTML file) or creating UI components, specifically for modifying contents of MS Word or MS Excel. How can this be accomplished do this?

Answer 1

You can run JavaScript code on Windows without a browser using Windows Script Host. I believe by default .js files are associated with wscript.exe, which runs the script without a console. You can also run them with access to a console via cscript.exe, e.g.:

cscript.exe /nologo yourfile.js

You can then get access to Office via ActiveXObject, e.g.:

var excel = new ActiveXObject("Excel.Application");

That gives you access to the COM API.