Automated program execution

[Michael Piaser]

I'm hoping somebody here has some ideas.

I'm looking to create the ability to execute a windows program and control the interaction with that program via a program.

for example, I want to write a program called Word-doer. Word-doer would do the following:
Read a MySQL Table or CSV for a name of a file
Start MS Word
Issue File Open command and enter the name of the file
Issue other commands
Issue File Exit commands.

Note - this is just an example so that what I'm asking for is understandable. In actuality it won't be MS Word but another Windows program.

It would be real cool if this could be done via PHP.