[Libreoffice] looking for scripting help

Hi,
if discovered that ODF format does not 'save as' in word 'doc' format 
all that well.
My partner is trying to get a manuscript written. Publishers are cheap 
and generally
a few thousand years behind the times. I'm surprised we still are 
writing on goat skin.

So. The problem. 'save as' export the body alright, but not the header 
and footers.

There doesn't seem to be a fix. So I've dreamed up work around. But I'll 
need some
help writing the script. The documentation I've found so far is pretty weak.

1) function to open a new document. Have pointers both old and new docs 
in the script.
2) Start at first page:
    copy header (data not field elements).
        Example head is Name \t page #field \t Date field, in a justifeid
        "Steven    Page 5    5 august 2011"
    I want the text.
3) Ditto the body
4) Ditto the footer
5) select newdoc
6) paste copy of header
7) Add default line width below
8) Add copy of body
9) Add default line width below
10) Add copy of footer
11) go to next page

until done.
I like python, have made a few test scripts. The the field parts of the 
document I don't understand.
Not wedded to python for this task.

Thanks
Steven Howe