diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 3ef4794e06..717d657148 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -9,6 +9,7 @@ This is the changelog between releases of PHPWord. Releases are listed in revers
 Place announcement text here.
 
 ### Changes
+- Changed visibility of all private properties and methods of ``TemplateProcessor`` to ``protected``. - RomanSyroeshko #498
 - Improved performance of ``TemplateProcessor::setValue()``. - @RomanSyroeshko #513
 - Renamed ``align`` option of ``Paragraph`` style into ``alignment``. Note: accessor and mutator methods are renamed too. - @RomanSyroeshko
 
diff --git a/src/PhpWord/TemplateProcessor.php b/src/PhpWord/TemplateProcessor.php
index 321abe7e09..77018f3d40 100644
--- a/src/PhpWord/TemplateProcessor.php
+++ b/src/PhpWord/TemplateProcessor.php
@@ -30,33 +30,33 @@ class TemplateProcessor
      *
      * @var mixed
      */
-    private $zipClass;
+    protected $zipClass;
 
     /**
      * @var string Temporary document filename (with path).
      */
-    private $temporaryDocumentFilename;
+    protected $temporaryDocumentFilename;
 
     /**
      * Content of main document part (in XML format) of the temporary document.
      *
      * @var string
      */
-    private $temporaryDocumentMainPart;
+    protected $temporaryDocumentMainPart;
 
     /**
      * Content of headers (in XML format) of the temporary document.
      *
      * @var string[]
      */
-    private $temporaryDocumentHeaders = array();
+    protected $temporaryDocumentHeaders = array();
 
     /**
      * Content of footers (in XML format) of the temporary document.
      *
      * @var string[]
      */
-    private $temporaryDocumentFooters = array();
+    protected $temporaryDocumentFooters = array();
 
     /**
      * @since 0.12.0 Throws CreateTemporaryFileException and CopyFileException instead of Exception.
@@ -410,7 +410,7 @@ protected function getVariablesForPart($documentPartXML)
      * @param integer $index
      * @return string
      */
-    private function getFooterName($index)
+    protected function getFooterName($index)
     {
         return sprintf('word/footer%d.xml', $index);
     }
@@ -421,7 +421,7 @@ private function getFooterName($index)
      * @param integer $index
      * @return string
      */
-    private function getHeaderName($index)
+    protected function getHeaderName($index)
     {
         return sprintf('word/header%d.xml', $index);
     }
@@ -433,7 +433,7 @@ private function getHeaderName($index)
      * @return integer
      * @throws \PhpOffice\PhpWord\Exception\Exception
      */
-    private function findRowStart($offset)
+    protected function findRowStart($offset)
     {
         $rowStart = strrpos($this->temporaryDocumentMainPart, '<w:tr ', ((strlen($this->temporaryDocumentMainPart) - $offset) * -1));
 
@@ -453,7 +453,7 @@ private function findRowStart($offset)
      * @param integer $offset
      * @return integer
      */
-    private function findRowEnd($offset)
+    protected function findRowEnd($offset)
     {
         return strpos($this->temporaryDocumentMainPart, '</w:tr>', $offset) + 7;
     }
@@ -465,7 +465,7 @@ private function findRowEnd($offset)
      * @param integer $endPosition
      * @return string
      */
-    private function getSlice($startPosition, $endPosition = 0)
+    protected function getSlice($startPosition, $endPosition = 0)
     {
         if (!$endPosition) {
             $endPosition = strlen($this->temporaryDocumentMainPart);