There is one option here: http://marc.info/?l=nyphp-talk&m=116460595828466&w=2
It is for linux and uses a command line program (not COM or DCOM) to extract the text.
OR you can take the much more complicated route - and see the MS Word File Format specifications here: http://www.microsoft.com/interop/docs/OfficeBinaryFormats.mspx, however beware - working with a binary format as complex as MS Word will be difficult and time consuming.
There are other options in development right now, including Java API implementations (which I believe - but may be mistaken PHP can use)
There are commercial API's for .NET which allow you to read/write MS Office Formats, you can get it to work in PHP, but you won't see any help on this, so you'd be pretty much on your own. (I have done this, however)
In short - no matter which way you look at it, you have 4 Options:
1: COM/DCOM
2: Commercial API for .NET (not reliable / supported)
3: Command Line Execution of Existing Free Software
4: Write Your Own Support
Good Luck, I hope this helps in some way..
