title: How to open and manipulate Word document/template in Java?
body: <p>I need to open a <code>.doc/.dot/.docx/.dotx</code> (I'm not picky, I just want it to work) document, 
  parse it for placeholders (or something similar),
  put my own data,
  and then return generated <code>.doc/.docx/.dotx/.pdf</code> document.</p>
  
  <p>And on top of all that, I need the tools to accomplish that to be free.</p>
  
  <p>I've searched around for something that would suit my needs, but I can't find anything.
  Tools like Docmosis, Javadocx, Aspose etc. are commercial.
  From what I've read, Apache POI is nowhere near successfully implementing this (they currently don't have any official developer working on Word part of framework).</p>
  
  <p>The only thing that looks that could do the trick is OpenOffice UNO API.
  But that is a pretty big byte for someone that has never used this API (like me).</p>
  
  <p>So if I am going to jump into this, I need to make sure that I am on the right path.</p>
  
  <p>Can someone give me some advice on this?</p>