How do I search & replace all occurrences of a string in a ms word doc with python?

I am pretty stumped at the moment. Based on Can I use Win32 COM to replace text inside a word开发者_开发知识库 document? I was able to code a simple template system that generates word docs out of a template word doc (in Python).

My problem is that text in "Text Fields" is not find that way. Even in Word itself there is no option to search everything - you actually have to choose between "Main Document" and "Text Fields". Being new to the Windows world I tried to browse the VBA docs for it but found no help (probably due to "text field" being a very common term).

word.Documents.Open(f)
wdFindContinue = 1
wdReplaceAll = 2
find_str = '\{\{(*)\}\}'
find = word.Selection.Find

find.Execute(find_str, False, False, True, False, False, \
True, wdFindContinue, False, False, False)

while find.Found:
    t = word.Selection.Text.__str__()
    r = process_placeholder(t, answer_data, question_data)

    if type(r) == dict:
        errors.append(r)
    else:
        find.Execute(t, False, True, False, False, False, \
        True, False, False, r, wdReplaceAll)

This is the relevant portion of my code. I was able to get around all problems by myself by now (hint: if you want to replace strings with more than 256 chars, you have to do it via clipboard, etc ...)

Maybe you can use the OpenOffice API using the UNO component technology. With the Python-UNO bridge you can connect to an OpenOffice instance running in headless mode. Look at the tutorial to get started.
This is maybe an overkill for your scenario but it's a very powerful and flexible solution.