Including Footnotes and Endnotes in Word Counts

Summary: When you have Word calculate how many words there are in a document, it normally doesn't pay attention to text in footnotes and endnotes. If you want these words counted in the total, here's how to get the proper count. (This tip works with Microsoft Word 97, Word 2000, Word 2002, Word 2003, and Word 2007.)

Word includes a feature that allows you to quickly determine a number of statistics about your document. For instance, you can determine the number of words, sentences, and paragraphs in your document. By default, Word doesn't include anything in footnotes or endnotes in these statistics. But you can specify that text in those areas be included by following these steps:

Display the Word Count dialog box. (Click here to see a related figure.) In versions of Word prior to Word 2007, choose Word Count from the Tools menu. In Word 2007, display the Review tab of the ribbon and click Word Count in the Proofing group.
Make sure the Include Footnotes and Endnotes check box is selected.
Review the document statistics, as desired.
Click on Close.

Tip #911 applies to Microsoft Word versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003 | 2007

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Including Footnotes and Endnotes in Word Counts