MSWord find operation scripting

I’m trying to convert a Word VBA procedure to an AppleScript and only having partial luck.

Here’s the first version of the VBA procedure:

And here’s my corresponding AppleScript:

on postprocessMerges()
	
	tell application "Microsoft Word"
		
		home key selection move unit a story extend by moving
		
		set selFind to find object of selection
		
		clear formatting selFind
		
		set foundIt to true
		repeat while foundIt
			
			set foundIt to execute find selFind find text "..." wrap find stop with match forward without find format
			
			if foundIt then
				
				set foundRng to text object of selection
				
				set foundRng to move start of range foundRng by a paragraph item count -1
				set foundRng to move range end until foundRng characters {return}
				set tt to (content of foundRng)
				set (content of foundRng) to my formatAmounts(tt)
				
			end if

		end repeat
		
	end tell
	
end postprocessMerges

Okay, so that works just fine. However, I’d like it to be better. The way the script is currently written, it actually jumps from hit to hit, highlighting the found text and performing the replacement generated by the formatAmounts subroutine. Not bad, but when you’re working with a 200+ page document, it gets a little tedious to see that happening onscreen.

So in VBA, I can do this:

This will perform the exact same action as the first procedure, but it does so on the document’s content range rather than the selection range and so I don’t have to watch Word jump around from page to page to page. Much more preferable, but not something I’ve been able to emulate in AS.

Specifically, I can’t seem to get the hit range each time through the loop without selecting it first. The find object in Word’s AS dictionary doesn’t have a Parent property I can access like I do in VBA.

Also, the dictionary entry for the execute find command contradicts itself. It says:

But then ends with:

So does it return a boolean or a text range?

Is there anything I’m missing? Is what I do in the second VBA proc actually replicable in AS?

This is using Word 2011 and AppleScript 2.3 on OS X 10.9.