Its maybe a good thing to post all the code. The contents of the file
"Bad RD*.doc" are also below. Parsing a text selection doesnt work.
Parsing the same text in a lieral works as noted below in the program.

File contents:
<project nerd="Phoenix 2 Clinical Update"></project>

Word macro:
Sub XTranslate()
    Dim stub As String
    Dim xmldoc As New MSXML2.DOMDocument
    With Application.FileSearch
        .FileName = "Bad RD*.doc"
        .LookIn = "D:\Documents and Settings\My Documents\Client
Files\Monthly"
        .Execute
        For i = 1 To .FoundFiles.Count
            MsgBox .FoundFiles(i)
            ' Wait until whole document is loaded before parsing it
            xmldoc.async = False
            Documents.Open FileName:=.FoundFiles(i),
ConfirmConversions _
                :=False, ReadOnly:=True, AddToRecentFiles:=False,
PasswordDocument:="", _
                PasswordTemplate:="", Revert:=False,
WritePasswordDocument:="", _
                WritePasswordTemplate:="", Format:=wdOpenFormatAuto
            Selection.WholeStory
            'stub = "<top><?xml version=""1.0"">
encoding=""ISO-8859-1""?>" & Selection.Text & "</top>"
            'stub = "<top>" & Selection.Text & "</top>"
            'stub = Selection.Text 'This doesnt work
            stub = "<project nerd=""Phoenix 2 Clinical
Update""></project>" ' This works
            MsgBox (stub)
            ' Process file
            If xmldoc.loadXML(stub) Then
            'If xmldoc.Load(.FoundFiles(i)) Then
                Call PrintDOM(xmldoc)
                Call xreportWord(xmldoc)
            Else
                MsgBox ("Nyet! " & xmldoc.parseError.Line & " " &
xmldoc.parseError.srcText & _
                " " & xmldoc.parseError.reason)
            End If
            Next i
    End With
End Sub