I am developing a .NET 2003 app that reviews Word and Excel documents via a
third party component that does NOT require Word or Excel to be loaded on
the target system. However, we need to be able to retreive document
properties, such as Author, from the Word/Excel file that this third party
component knows nothing about. Therefore,  if Word/Excel is loaded on the
system, the user can select an option to retreive document properties.

In developing the code to facilitate the above feature, I have a refernce to
both Word and Excel in my project. How do I handle the situation where the
app is loaded on a PC without Word/Excel?

Clear as mud, I'm sure.

Thanks,
Michael