I did something like this a while back in order to launch a new document from a word template, though it's probably not too elegant to someone who really knows what they are doing.
I had a few problems with getting it to launch a new document from the template rather than just opening the template and, in this case, the template must be located in the same directory as the spreadsheet. However here is what I ended up with:
Private mobjWordApp As Word.Application, wbXL As excel.Workbook
Private Sub CommandButton1_Click()
Dim templName As String
Dim tPath As String
tPath = ThisWorkbook.Path
templName = "filename.dot"
Set mobjWordApp = New Word.Application
With mobjWordApp
.Visible = True
.WindowState = wdWindowStateMaximize
.Documents.Add Template:=(tPath & Application.PathSeparator _
& templName), NewTemplate:=False, DocumentType:=0
End With
End Sub
Hope this is not too late to be of some use,
G