I need to create a .doc or .dot document that will that will have address and
image place holders populated by a .Net applicaton (VB.Net). The address
information is the mailing address of the customer and images place holder
are the photos we took of him at an event (graduation, race, greek party,
etc.)

My experience with Word is limited to created normal documents. Although, I
do know how to create mail merge document. However, in this case the mail
merge is not being done within word. This will be done by the application.

My question is how to create the place holders? Can you create image place
holders on the template and reference them in VB.Net? Can you create image
place holders in VB.Net and place them in an word document object at runtime?

In most cases, when we create a mailing for an event, most subjects have the
same number of pictures. However, that is not always the case, and it would
be nice to insert the photos at runtime and not have blank image place
holders afterwards.