diff --git a/src/PhpWord/TemplateProcessor.php b/src/PhpWord/TemplateProcessor.php
index e7a8d039c4..63b918131f 100644
--- a/src/PhpWord/TemplateProcessor.php
+++ b/src/PhpWord/TemplateProcessor.php
@@ -362,18 +362,16 @@ public function cloneBlock($blockname, $clones = 1, $replace = true)
      */
     public function replaceBlock($blockname, $replacement)
     {
-        preg_match(
-            '/(<\?xml.*)(<w:p.*>\${' . $blockname . '}<\/w:.*?p>)(.*)(<w:p.*\${\/' . $blockname . '}<\/w:.*?p>)/is',
-            $this->tempDocumentMainPart,
-            $matches
-        );
-
-        if (isset($matches[3])) {
-            $this->tempDocumentMainPart = str_replace(
-                $matches[2] . $matches[3] . $matches[4],
-                $replacement,
-                $this->tempDocumentMainPart
-            );
+    	$matches = $this->findBlock($blockname);
+        
+        if (isset($matches[1]))
+        {
+            $this->temporaryDocumentMainPart = str_replace
+                (
+                    $matches[0],
+                    $replacement,
+                    $this->temporaryDocumentMainPart
+                );
         }
     }
 
@@ -584,4 +582,107 @@ protected function getSlice($startPosition, $endPosition = 0)
 
         return substr($this->tempDocumentMainPart, $startPosition, ($endPosition - $startPosition));
     }
+    
+    private function findBlock($blockname)
+    {
+    	// Parse the XML
+    	$xml = new \SimpleXMLElement($this->temporaryDocumentMainPart);
+    
+    	// Find the starting and ending tags
+    	$startNode = false; $endNode = false;
+    	foreach ($xml->xpath('//w:t') as $node)
+    	{
+    		if (strpos($node, '${'.$blockname.'}') !== false)
+    		{
+    			$startNode = $node;
+    			continue;
+    		}
+    
+    		if (strpos($node, '${/'.$blockname.'}') !== false)
+    		{
+    			$endNode = $node;
+    			break;
+    		}
+    	}
+    
+    	// Make sure we found the tags
+    	if ($startNode === false || $endNode === false)
+    	{
+    		return null;
+    	}
+    
+    	// Find the parent <w:p> node for the start tag
+    	$node = $startNode; $startNode = null;
+    	while (is_null($startNode))
+    	{
+    		$node = $node->xpath('..')[0];
+    
+    		if ($node->getName() == 'p')
+    		{
+    			$startNode = $node;
+    		}
+    	}
+    
+    	// Find the parent <w:p> node for the end tag
+    	$node = $endNode; $endNode = null;
+    	while (is_null($endNode))
+    	{
+    		$node = $node->xpath('..')[0];
+    
+    		if ($node->getName() == 'p')
+    		{
+    			$endNode = $node;
+    		}
+    	}
+    
+    	/*
+    	 * NOTE: Because SimpleXML reduces empty tags to "self-closing" tags.
+    	 * We need to replace the original XML with the version of XML as
+    	 * SimpleXML sees it. The following example should show the issue
+    	 * we are facing.
+    	 *
+    	 * This is the XML that my document contained orginally.
+    	 *
+    	 * ```xml
+    	 *  <w:p>
+    	 *      <w:pPr>
+    	 *          <w:pStyle w:val="TextBody"/>
+    	 *          <w:rPr></w:rPr>
+    	 *      </w:pPr>
+    	 *      <w:r>
+    	 *          <w:rPr></w:rPr>
+    	 *          <w:t>${CLONEME}</w:t>
+    	 *      </w:r>
+    	 *  </w:p>
+    	 * ```
+    	 *
+    	 * This is the XML that SimpleXML returns from asXml().
+    	 *
+    	 * ```xml
+    	 *  <w:p>
+    	 *      <w:pPr>
+    	 *          <w:pStyle w:val="TextBody"/>
+    	 *          <w:rPr/>
+    	 *      </w:pPr>
+    	 *      <w:r>
+    	 *          <w:rPr/>
+    	 *          <w:t>${CLONEME}</w:t>
+    	 *      </w:r>
+    	 *  </w:p>
+    	 * ```
+    	 */
+    
+    	$this->temporaryDocumentMainPart = $xml->asXml();
+    
+    	// Find the xml in between the tags
+    	$xmlBlock = null;
+    	preg_match
+    	(
+    			'/'.preg_quote($startNode->asXml(), '/').'(.*?)'.preg_quote($endNode->asXml(), '/').'/is',
+    			$this->temporaryDocumentMainPart,
+    			$matches
+    			);
+    
+    	return $matches;
+    }
 }