I am trying to retrieve a selection from an open excel worksheet. When I run this code:

(setq ^ExcelApp (vlax-get-object "Excel.Application"))

it creates a new, empty instance of excel even though there is already one running. I'm using AutoCAD MEP 2018 and Excel 2010. Is this a bug in VisualLisp or am I doing something wrong? If it's a bug are there any workarounds?

Thanks for any help that can be offered with this.