Well -- how are you inserting the text? Mailmerge? You're going to
have to write some code that parses what is coming out of the
database, then applies the formatting as the text goes into the Word
doc.

Your codes get treated literally because Word doesn't know what you
want to do -- treat them as HTML, or just typing?

It may be ugly, depending on how you do it -- you could parse
character by character, OR perhaps you could do a search-and-replace
once the text is in there.

Good luck.