Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated February 23, 2019)
This tip applies to Word 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003
You probably already knew that Word provides a way to determine the number of words in a selection or in your entire document. Word has its own internal algorithms to figure out the proper count. This is great, if you need to know actual word counts.
Before the days of actual word counts, however, typists figured out the number of average words in a document. This was done by figuring out the number of characters typed, and then dividing that figure by five. For some purposes you may still need to figure word counts using this old-fashioned approach. This can be done with a simple macro, as follows:
Sub WordCount() Dim Title As String Dim WordCount As Integer Dim Message As String Title = "WordCount" WordCount = Int((Len(Selection) / 5) + 0.5) Message = LTrim(Str(WordCount)) + " word" If WordCount <> 1 Then Message = Message + "s" MsgBox Message, vbOKOnly, Title End Sub
Note:
WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (757) applies to Microsoft Word 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003. You can find a version of this tip for the ribbon interface of Word (Word 2007 and later) here: Counting Words the Old Fashioned Way.
The First and Last Word on Word! Bestselling For Dummies author Dan Gookin puts his usual fun and friendly candor back to work to show you how to navigate Word 2013. Spend more time working and less time trying to figure it all out! Check out Word 2013 For Dummies today!
Getting a word count for a single document is easy. Getting an aggregate word count for a large number of documents can ...
Discover MoreYou can use Word's built in tools to figure out how many words are in your document. If you want a real-time, constantly ...
Discover MoreWhen you instruct Word to tell you how many words are in a document, it treats hyphenated words or phrases as if they are ...
Discover MoreFREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in WordTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."
There are currently no comments for this tip. (Be the first to leave your comment—just use the simple form above!)
Got a version of Word that uses the menu interface (Word 97, Word 2000, Word 2002, or Word 2003)? This site is for you! If you use a later version of Word, visit our WordTips site focusing on the ribbon interface.
Visit the WordTips channel on YouTube
FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in WordTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."
Copyright © 2024 Sharon Parq Associates, Inc.
Comments