How to calculate number of words in word


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Are you looking for an easy way to check the word count in your Microsoft Word document? Word has an easy-to-use, built-in tool that keeps track of your word count in each of its versions, including desktop, mobile or online. This wikiHow article will teach you how to view the word count for a section of text or your entire document in Microsoft Word.

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    Launch Microsoft Word. This can be done by double clicking on the Word icon on your desktop, in your Taskbar (Windows) or Dock (Mac). If you don’t see an icon, click on the ‘Start» menu in the lower left of your PC’s screen. Click on the ‘All Programs» drop down and select Microsoft Word.[1]

    • On Mac, click on the Launchpad (a gray rocketship) icon in your dock. Type ‘Word’ in the search bar at the top of the screen.
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    Navigate to an existing document. To open a document, go to the File menu, and then click on Open. A dialog box will appear with a list of available documents.[2]

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    Select a document. In the dialog box, navigate to the document you wish to open. Select the document, and once it’s highlighted, click on Open in the lower right of the dialog box.

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    Select Tools. Once your document is open, select the Tools menu at the top center of the window.[3]

    • This step only applies to a MAC OS.
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    Scroll to Word Count. In the Tools menu dropdown, click on «Word Count.»

    • If you’re not using a Mac, you won’t see any Tools heading at the top. In this case, go to the Review tab at the top of your document. Once there, you’ll see «Word Count» on the left-hand side of the section.
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    Review your word count. A box will open displaying the number of words, as well as the number of characters, paragraphs, lines and pages, contained in your document.

    • In many documents, the word count is displayed live on the left side of the bottom bar of the document window. Click on this word count to get additional information, such as the number of pages and characters.
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    Place your cursor at the beginning of the text you wish to count. Click on the beginning of the sentence, paragraph or section of text for which you want a word count.

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    Highlight the section of text. Drag your cursor to the end of the text section, which should now be highlighted in blue.

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    Click on the Tools menu. Select the Tools menu at the top center of the document window.

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    Click on Word Count. Select Word Count from the Tools menu dropdown. A box displaying the number of words, characters, lines, pages and paragraphs will appear on the screen.

    • The word count for a selected portion of text will usually be displayed in the bottom bar of your document.
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    Launch the Microsoft Word mobile app. On your smartphone or tablet, tap on the Word app to launch it.

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    Open a document. The app will usually open the last document you were working on. If not, you will see a list of recently-opened files. Tap on the file you wish to work on.

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    Tap the Edit menu. Once your document is open, tap on the Edit menu (a capital «A» with a pencil icon) on top center of your screen. The Edit menu will open in the bottom half of your screen.

    • In Word for iPad, simply tap on the «Review» menu at the top center of the tablet’s screen.
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    Tap on «Home.» Home is located on the left side of the Edit menu bar. This will open a pop-up menu.

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    Tap on «Review.» The Review menu is near the bottom of the Edit menu pop-up.

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    Tap on «Word Count.» Word Count is near the bottom of the Review menu. When you tap it, the number of words, characters and pages in your document will be displayed.

    • In Word for iPad, word count is an icon, several lines with the numbers «123» displayed in the upper left, in the main menu bar under the Review menu.
    • Highlight a section of text by tapping on it with your fingers, then tap on Word Count to display the number of words in the highlighted portion of your document.
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    Launch Word online. Navigate to office.live.com and log in with your Microsoft ID and password or choose to use the free version.

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    Open a document. On the left side of your screen, select a recent document.

    • If you don’t see the document you want to edit, select Open from One Drive or Open from Dropbox in the lower left corner of the window.
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    Review the word count. Once you have an open document, check the bottom left, side of the document. The word count automatically appears in the lower scroll bar.

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Add New Question

  • Question

    How do I select the area to word count in Word 2016?

    Community Answer

    Highlight the passage; it should show the word count.

  • Question

    When I am in the header area, Word will not show me a word count. What can I do?

    Community Answer

    Select all of the words in the header and the word count for the words you highlighted will be displayed in the word count box on the status bar.

  • Question

    I don’t see Word Count in the lower left corner. Why not?

    Community Answer

    Right click on the status bar and click on «Word Count» so that it has a tick next to it.

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  • On Word for PC/Mac, make sure the Microsoft Word window is fully maximized. Otherwise, the window can be moved within your viewable area, and the Word Count in the lower portion of the document could be hidden.

  • To ensure the word count is always visible in your documents, select View from the Preferences menu in the upper left corner of your Mac or PC. The check the box to the left of «Live Word Count.»

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About This Article

Article SummaryX

1. Open the document.
2. Find the word count at the bottom-left corner.
3. Click the word count for more info.
4. Highlight a section to see the word count for that section.

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Thanks to all authors for creating a page that has been read 918,954 times.

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Microsoft word is used to make professional-quality documents. Morsa Images / Getty Images

Typing out essays and theses on a computer is obligatory in colleges and universities nowadays. Most academic documents are restricted in length, be it 1,000 or 80,000 words. It’s important to stay within the limit, as exceeding the limit can incur a penalty. Similarly, writing too few words can cost you marks [source: City University]. Most people type out their documents in Microsoft Word. However not everyone is familiar with Word’s many little tricks. Here’s how to count the number of words in your document using Microsoft Word.

In order to count words, the computer has to know what words you want to count. You tell it this information by highlighting the text in question. If this is the entire document, press the Ctrl key and press the A key at the same time. This will highlight the whole text. You can remove your fingers and the text will remain highlighted.

Here’s how to count words in Microsoft Word 2003:

  1. Select Tools from the tool bar on the top of the page.
  2. Select Word Count from the dropdown menu that appears. A box will appear, giving you information about the text that you highlighted, including the number of words it contains.
  3. Include the words in the footnotes and endnotes if those words are counted in the total number of words allowed in your paper. Simply click on Include footnotes and endnotes, in the lower left corner of the box, and these words will be included in the total number of words [source: Microsoft].

Here’s how to count words in Microsoft Word 2007:

  1. Highlight the text whose words you would like to count. The number of words you’ve highlighted will be displayed on the status bar at the bottom of the screen, as a fraction of the total number of words in the document.
  2. Include footnotes in the word count by selecting Review on the toolbar. Then select Proofing, and then Word Count. Select Include Textboxes, Footnotes and Endnotes. The total number of words counted will be displayed in the status bar [source: Microsoft].

Originally Published: Jun 30, 2011

Count Words in Word FAQ

How do I get the word count in Word?

To see the number of words in a whole document, simply find the word count in the status bar at the bottom left of the page. Alternatively, ensure no text is highlighted and right click to see a status bar and select “Word Count.”

How do you count the number of words in a paragraph?

To get the word count of a specific paragraph in MS Word, use your cursor to click and drag over the text until it’s highlighted. Then check the displayed word count in the lower left status bar.

What is the shortcut key for word count?

In Microsoft Word, the keyboard shortcut for opening the word count dialog box is Ctrl + Shift + G.

How do I count the words in a Word table?

You can count the number of words in Tables in a Word document by holding down on left click and scrolling down until the whole table has been highlighted. The number of words in the table will appear at the bottom of the Word document in the status bar.

Does the word count in Word include comments?

Yes. Comments are included in the word count of a document of Microsoft Word. However, endnotes, footnotes and appendices are not counted.

Get an accurate character count and word count in Microsoft Word

Updated on October 4, 2019

When you work on blog posts, technical manuals, academic papers, and other documents, you may need to know how many words are in the document or the number of characters in the title. Microsoft Word contains multiple ways to get an accurate count of the number of words or characters in a document. Word also calculates the number of words or characters in selected blocks of text.

Instructions in this article apply to Word for Microsoft 365, Word 2019, Word 2016, Word 2013, Word 2010, and Word Online.

How to Display Word Count in Microsoft Word

To turn on the word count in Word:

  1. Open Word.

  2. Right-click the Status bar at the bottom of the window.

  3. Select Word Count.

  4. The word count for the entire document displays in the Status bar.

    In Word Online, if the word count doesn’t display at the bottom of the window, select Edit Document and choose Edit in Word for the web.

  5. To display the word count for a particular selection, highlight the text you want to count.

How to Get Detailed Information on Word Count

To view more detailed information about the word count:

  1. Open the Word document.

  2. Go to the Review tab.

  3. In the Proofing group, choose Word Count.

  4. The Word Count dialog box lists the number of pages, word count, character count, paragraph count, and line count. You can opt not to include text boxes, footnotes, and endnotes.

How to View Word Count in Microsoft Word With a Shortcut

To use a keyboard shortcut to view the word count and other information:

  1. Open the Word document.

  2. Press Ctrl+Shift+G.

  3. In the Word Count dialog box, clear the Include text boxes, footnotes and endnotes checkbox if you don’t want to include these in the word count.

  4. Select Close when you’re finished.

In Word for Mac, to count part of the words in a document, select the text you want to count, go to the Tools menu, then select Word Count.

How to Show the Word Count in a Field

Another way to display the word count of a document in Word is to add a field to the document.

To display the word count in a field:

  1. Place the cursor where you want the word count to appear.

  2. Go to the Insert tab.

  3. In the Text group, select Quick Parts, then choose Field.

  4. In the Field names list, choose NumWords, then select OK.

  5. Right-click the field and select Update Field to update the word count.

Word updates the word count automatically when you print the file. Select File > Options > Display, then go to the Printing options section and select Update fields before printing.

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Microsoft Word logo on a blue background

Look in the bottom-left corner of the Microsoft Word window to see the word count of an entire document. To view the word count for a specific section of text, select the text with your cursor, and then look at the bottom-left corner of the window.

Depending on what you’re working on, such as an essay for a school assignment, you may have a specific word count you must reach (or not exceed). You can quickly tell what the current word count is in Microsoft Word.

You can get the word count for your entire Word document, or you can get the word count of just a specific section in Word for Windows.

Get the Word Count of an Entire Document

The easiest way to get the word count of your entire Word document is to simply check the status bar, as the word count is displayed by default. You can find the word count to the left of the status bar at the bottom of the window.

The word count in the status bar.

If you’re not seeing the word count in the status bar, it may have been previously disabled. You can bring the word count back by right-clicking any area of the status bar and then choosing “Word Count” from the context menu.

Alternatively, to get the word count, click the “Review” tab, and then choose “Word Count” in the Proofing group.

The Word Count dialog box will appear. You can find the word count next to Words.

The word count dialog.

Get the Word Count of a Specific Section of a Document

You can also get the word count of a specific section in a Word document. This is useful if you need to keep the entire word document within a certain word count but you feel you’re being too wordy in a specific section.

All you need to do is highlight the section of the document you want to get the word count of by clicking and dragging your mouse over the text. Once highlighted, the selected word count will appear in the status bar in an x of y format–x being the selected word count and y being the total word count of the document.

Word count of a specific section in the status bar.

Or, highlight the text you want to get the word count of, click “Word Count” in the “Review” tab, and then check the number next to Words in the dialog box.

Selected word count.

How to Check the Word Count in Microsoft Word for Mac

You can also get the word count of an entire Word document (or just a specific section) on Mac. The process is similar to that of Windows.

Get the Word Count of an Entire Document

To get the word count of your entire Word doc, just check the word count to the left of the status bar at the bottom of the window. The word count feature is added here by default.

Full word count in status bar.

If you don’t see the word count, it may have been previously disabled. You can bring it back by right-clicking anywhere on the status bar and then selecting “Word Count” from the context menu that appears.

You can also get the word count of the document by clicking “Tools” in the header menu and then choosing “Word Count.”

The word count is displayed next to Words.

Full word count in Mac's Word Count dialog.

Get the Word Count of a Specific Section of a Document

You can also get the word count of a specific section. To do this, highlight the text you want to get the word count of by clicking and dragging your cursor over the text. Once selected, check the word count in the status bar. The first number represents the selected word count.

Specific word count in status bar.

Or, open the Word Count dialog box (Tools > Word Count) and then check the number next to Words.

Selected word count in Word Count dialog on Mac.

Getting the word count isn’t the only feature available in Word. You can also get the page, character, paragraph, and line count, and see how long you’ve been working on a document. If you want, you can even insert the word count of your document into the document itself!

RELATED: How to Insert a Word Count into Your Word Document

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Knowing the character or word count is really important for many purposes especially when you are writing a blog post, legal document, work assignments, or academic papers. There are many instances where you may want to know the number of characters in your writing rather than words such as posting on social media, writing SMS/email, posting a comment, etc.

Since Microsoft Word is the leading word processor, it includes a feature that lets you track the number of words, characters, paragraphs, lines, and pages in your documents. There are several ways you can access the character count in Microsoft Word and we will explore each of them in this article.

Get Character Count from the Review tab of Microsoft Word

Microsoft has a built-in feature called Word Count which allows you to view the count of not only characters (with or without space) but also pages, words, paragraphs, and lines. Word counts the number of words and characters while you type which can be viewed from the Word Count feature. Follow the below steps to count the number of characters in Word:

First, open the Word document in which you want to count the number of characters. Next, go to the ‘Review’ tab at the ribbon and click the ‘Word Count’ button in the Proofing group.

A Word Count dialog box will appear with the number of characters (including with space or without space). It will also show you the count of Words, Pages, Paragraphs, and Lines present in the current document.

At the bottom of the text, check the ‘Include textboxes, footnotes, and endnotes’ option if you also want the text boxes, footnotes, and endnotes to be included in the count. When you are done, click the ‘Close’ button to close the dialog box.

Get Character Count for Specific Text in Word

If you wish to find the number of characters in a specific sentence, paragraph, page, or section, select only that specific text, then click the ‘Word Count’ button in the Review tab.

And the Word Count box will show you the count for only the selected text.

View Character Count from the Status Bar

Microsoft’s Word count feature automatically counts the words as you type in your document and shows you the count in the status bar. By default, the status bar only shows the Word count, but not the characters. However, you can also enable the character count in the status bar to view the count.

To view character count from the Status bar, right-click on the status bar at the bottom of the window and select the ‘Character Count’ option. If enabled the option will be marked with a tick mark.

Now, you can get the character count as you type in Microsoft Word.

View Character Counter with a Single Click

You can add the Word Count button in the Quick Acces Toolbar and use it to view the number of characters immediately. To add the Word count button to the Quick Access Toolbar, follow these instructions:

Open the Word program, right-click anywhere on the ribbon and select ‘Add to Quick Access Toolbar’.

Alternatively, you can go to the ‘File’ menu, and select ‘Options’.

In the Word Option, switch to ‘Quick Access Toolbar’ and select ‘All Commands’ from the ‘Choose commands from’ drop-down.

Next, scroll down the list of commands and locate the ‘Word Count’ command. Then, select the ‘Word Count’ command and click ‘Add’ in the middle.

After that, click ‘OK’ to save the changes.

Once the Word Count button is added to the Quick Access Toolbar, you can click on it anytime to quickly view the character count.

View the Character Count in Word Online

If you write your documents in Microsoft Word online app, you can also view the word count using a similar method. Here’s how you can do that:

Open a web browser and head to office.live.com and log in with your Microsoft account credentials to access Microsoft apps. Then, click the ‘Word’ icon on the left side of the screen.

Next, you can either create a new document and start typing or open an existing document in which you want to count the number of characters.

Then, go to the ‘Review’ tab in the menu bar and click the ‘Word Count’ button. Then, select ‘Word Count’ from the menu.

A small Word Count dialog box will appear in the middle with the number of words, characters (including space and no space), and paragraphs. Click ‘OK’ to close the dialog box.

Get Character Count in Word for Mobile

If you prefer to use the Word app on your mobile device, you can also get the character and word count from Microsoft Word mobile app. Follow these steps to view character count in Word for Mobile:

In the Word mobile app, open an existing document or create a new one.

When the document opens, click the ‘Edit’ button (pencil icon) on the top center of your screen. 

Next, tap on the ‘Show Commands’ button (a capital A with a pencil icon) on the top center of your screen.

This will reveal the commands panel in the bottom half of your screen. On the left side of the command panel, click or tap on ‘Home’.

From the pop-up menu, tap ‘Review’ as shown below.

Then, select ‘Word Count’ under the Review menu.

You will then see the numbers of characters, words, and pages in the current document.

Use Online Character/Word Counter Websites

There are numerous websites online that lets you count words, characters, paragraphs, and lines in a document. And there are very easy to use. You can just copy the content from your document and paste it into one of these online tools. Some websites let you upload the word document and count the characters within it.

These are some online word and character counters that you can use: thewordcounter, wordcounter, keywordtool, charactercountonline, etc.

First, open the document in which you want to count characters. Select the entire document by pressing Ctrl+A and then press Ctrl+C to copy the selected content.

Then, head to one of the online counter tools and paste the text inside the text entry field by pressing Ctrl+V. And the website will automatically count the number of characters, and words and show it to you.

Add a Character Count To Your Document

Sometimes, you may be required to insert the number of characters in your document as a field. Follow the below steps to include the character count in your document:

First, open the Word document and click where you want to add the number of characters that are in your document.

After that, go to the ‘Insert’ tab in the ribbon.

In the Insert tab, click on the ‘Quick Parts’ button from the Text section, and select the ‘Field’ option.

This will open up the Field dialog box. In the Field names list, select the ‘NumChars’ option and click on the ‘OK’ button. If you want the number of words instead, select ‘NumWords’ from the Field names list and click ‘OK’.

Now, the total number of characters will appear where you had placed the cursor in the document as shown below. 

That’s it.

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