Word Document Manipulation with python-docx

Critical: Split Placeholder Problem

The #1 issue with Word templates: Word often splits placeholder text across multiple XML runs. For example, {{CANDIDATE_NAME}} might be stored as:

• Run 1: {{CANDI
• Run 2: DATE_NAME}}

This happens due to spell-check, formatting changes, or Word's internal XML structure.

Naive Approach (FAILS on split placeholders)

# DON'T DO THIS - won't find split placeholders
for para in doc.paragraphs:
    for run in para.runs:
        if '{{NAME}}' in run.text:  # Won't match if split!
            run.text = run.text.replace('{{NAME}}', value)