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I have to perform a large number of replacements in some documents, and the thing is, I would like to be able to automate that task. Some of the documents contain common strings, and this would be pretty useful if it could be automated. From what I read so far, COM could be one way of doing this, but I don't know if text replacement is supported. I'd like to be able to perform this task in python? Is it possible? Could you post a code snippet showing how to access the document's text?

Thanks!

I like the answers so far;
here's a tested example (slightly modified from here )
that replaces all occurrences of a string in a Word document:

import win32com.client
def search_replace_all(word_file, find_str, replace_str):
    ''' replace all occurrences of `find_str` w/ `replace_str` in `word_file` '''
    wdFindContinue = 1
    wdReplaceAll = 2
    # Dispatch() attempts to do a GetObject() before creating a new one.
    # DispatchEx() just creates a new one. 
    app = win32com.client.DispatchEx("Word.Application")
    app.Visible = 0
    app.DisplayAlerts = 0
    app.Documents.Open(word_file)
    # expression.Execute(FindText, MatchCase, MatchWholeWord,
    #   MatchWildcards, MatchSoundsLike, MatchAllWordForms, Forward, 
    #   Wrap, Format, ReplaceWith, Replace)
    app.Selection.Find.Execute(find_str, False, False, False, False, False, \
        True, wdFindContinue, False, replace_str, wdReplaceAll)
    app.ActiveDocument.Close(SaveChanges=True)
    app.Quit()
f = 'c:/path/to/my/word.doc'
search_replace_all(f, 'string_to_be_replaced', 'replacement_str')
See if this gives you a start on word automation using python.
Once you open a document, you could do the following.

After the following code, you can Close the document & open another.
Selection.Find.ClearFormatting
Selection.Find.Replacement.ClearFormatting
With Selection.Find
    .Text = "test"
    .Replacement.Text = "test2"
    .Forward = True
    .Wrap = wdFindContinue
    .Format = False
    .MatchCase = False
    .MatchWholeWord = False
    .MatchKashida = False
    .MatchDiacritics = False
    .MatchAlefHamza = False
    .MatchControl = False
    .MatchWildcards = False
    .MatchSoundsLike = False
    .MatchAllWordForms = False
End With
Selection.Find.Execute Replace:=wdReplaceAll
The above code replaces the text "test" with "test2" and does a "replace all".

You can turn other options true/false depending on what you need.
The simple way to learn this is to create a macro with actions you want to take, see the generated code & use it in your own example (with/without modified parameters).
EDIT: After looking at some code by Matthew, you could do the following
MSWord.Documents.Open(filename)
Selection = MSWord.Selection
And then translate the above VB code to Python.

Note: The following VB code is shorthand way of assigning property without using the long syntax.
With Selection.Find
    .Text = "test"
    .Replacement.Text = "test2"
End With
Python
find = Selection.Find
find.Text = "test"
find.Replacement.Text = "test2"
Pardon my python knowledge. But, I hope you get the idea to move forward.

Remember to do a Save & Close on Document, after you are done with the find/replace operation.
In the end, you could call MSWord.Quit (to release Word object from memory).
                Bernie's answer includes actual complete python code. This answer could be more terse, and include more complete python.
– Epu
                Mar 27, 2013 at 21:41
If this mailing list post is right, accessing the document's text is a simple as:
MSWord = win32com.client.Dispatch("Word.Application")
MSWord.Visible = 0 
MSWord.Documents.Open(filename)
docText = MSWord.Documents[0].Content
Also see How to: Search for and Replace Text in Documents.  The examples use VB and C#, but the basics should apply to Python too.
Checkout this link: http://python.net/crew/pirx/spam7/
The links on the left side point to the documentation. 
You can generalize this using the object model, which is found here: 
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/kw65a0we(VS.80).aspx
You can also achieve this using VBScript. Just type the code into a file named script.vbs, then open a command prompt (Start -> Run -> Cmd), then switch to the folder where the script is and type: 
cscript script.vbs 
strFolder = "C:\Files"
Const wdFormatDocument  = 0
'Select all files in strFolder
strComputer = "."
Set objWMIService = GetObject("winmgmts:\\" & strComputer & "\root\cimv2")
Set colFiles = objWMIService.ExecQuery _
    ("ASSOCIATORS OF {Win32_Directory.Name='" & strFolder & "'} Where " _
        & "ResultClass = CIM_DataFile")
'Start MS Word
Set objWord = CreateObject("Word.Application")
Const wdReplaceAll = 2
Const wdOrientLandscape = 1
For Each objFile in colFiles
    If objFile.Extension = "doc" Then
        strFile = strFolder & "\" & objFile.FileName & "." & objFile.Extension
        strNewFile = strFolder & "\" & objFile.FileName & ".doc"
        Wscript.Echo "Processing " & objFile.Name & "..."
        Set objDoc = objWord.Documents.Open(strFile)
        objDoc.PageSetup.Orientation = wdOrientLandscape
        'Replace text - ^p in a string stands for new paragraph; ^m stands for page break
        Set objSelection = objWord.Selection
        objSelection.Find.Text = "String to replace"
        objSelection.Find.Forward = TRUE
        objSelection.Find.Replacement.Text = "New string"
        objSelection.Find.Execute ,,,,,,,,,,wdReplaceAll
        objDoc.SaveAs strNewFile, wdFormatDocument
        objDoc.Close
        Wscript.Echo "Ready"
    End If
objWord.Quit
        
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