Are there any best practices or recommendations for using COM with external applications like Office Word in PHP?

When using COM with external applications like Office Word in PHP, it is recommended to properly handle errors, release COM objects after use to prevent memory leaks, and check for the availability of the external application before attempting to use it.

<?php
$word = new COM("Word.Application") or die("Unable to instantiate Word");
$word->Visible = 1;

// Your code to interact with Word here

$word->Quit();
unset($word);
?>