I agree..
However you could use a third part tool to convert the word doc to html, edit the html and use the third party tool to convert it back again.
If your PHP server has word installed you can use the word dll to convert to html, but im not sure if you can convert back to way.
I have used a command line work doc convertor through PHP called WordConverterEXE from http://www.softinterface.com this may do the job, they offer a trial version, but the commercial costs money 🙁