I don't do much Win32 these days either. As you say you need to deliver the expected. Here is an amusing snippet, relevant to the current:

sub word_find_and_replace {

    my ( $word, $rel_file_path, $tokens_ref ) = @_;
    # first make a temporary file to do the search and replace on
    my ( $fh, $temp_name ) = get_tempfile( "$DOC_DIR/system", 'doc' );
    close $fh;
    my $content_ref = read_file( "$DOC_DIR/$rel_file_path" ); 
    create_file( "$DOC_DIR/system/$temp_name", $content_ref, 'overwrit
+e ok' );
    $word->{visible} = 0;
    my $doc = $word->{Documents}->Open("$DOC_DIR/system/$temp_name");
    my $search_obj =  $doc->Content->Find;
    my $replace_obj = $search_obj->Replacement;
    for my $token ( keys %$tokens_ref ) {  
        my $find =  '<?' . $token . '?>'; 
        my $replace = $tokens_ref->{$token};


        # now i know this looks weired but M$ word (at least 2000) wan
+ts \r
        # as the para marker not \r\n or even \n if you send \n you ge
+t little 
        # binary squares..... oh well that's M$ for you. 


        $replace =~ s/\r\n|\n/\r/g;  # this makes it work properly. GO
+K


        $search_obj->{Text}  = $find;
        $replace_obj->{Text} = $replace;
        $search_obj->Execute({Replace => $wdReplaceAll});
    }
    $doc->Save;
    $doc->Close;
    # now get the data out of the modified temp file
    $content_ref = read_file( "$DOC_DIR/system/$temp_name" );
    # remove our unwanted temp files and objects
    unlink "$DOC_DIR/system/$temp_name";
    undef $search_obj;
    undef $replace_obj;
    undef $doc;
  return $content_ref;
}
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