How do I do a Word Count in Microsoft Word?

You can also change the way word reviews your document by clicking the File tab and choose Options.

COUNT THE WORDS AS YOU TYPE

When you type in a document, Word automatically counts the number of pages and words in your document and displays them on the status bar at the bottom of the workspace.

If you don’t see the word count in the status bar right-click the status bar and click Word Count.

COUNT THE WORDS IN A SELECTION OR SELECTIONS

You can count the number of words in a selection or selections, rather than all of the words in a document. The selections don’t need to be next to each other for you to count them.

• Select the text that you want to count.
• The status bar displays the number of words in the selection. For example, 100/1440 means that the selection accounts for 100 words of the total number of words in the document, 1,440.

TIP: To select blocks of text that aren’t next to each other, select the first section, and then hold down CTRL and select additional sections.

COUNT THE WORDS IN A TEXT BOX

• Select the text in the text box.
• The status bar displays the number of words in the text box. For example, 100/1440 means that the text box contains 100 words of the total number of words in the document, 1,440.

NOTE: To count the words in multiple text boxes, press and hold CTRL while you select the text in each text box that you want to count. The word count automatically adds the total number of selected words in the text boxes.

INCLUDE TEXT IN FOOTNOTES, ENDNOTES, AND TEXT BOXES IN THE WORD COUNT

1. On the Review tab, in the Proofing group, click Word Count.
2. In the Word Count dialog box, select the Include textboxes, footnotes and endnotes check box.

INSERT THE NUMBER OF WORDS IN YOUR DOCUMENT

1. Click where you want to add the number of words that are in your document.
2. On the Insert tab, in the Text group, click Quick Parts.
3. Click Field.
4. In the Field names list, click NumWords, and then click OK.

NOTE: You can also add the number of pages or characters by clicking NumPages or NumChars in the Field names list.

COUNT THE NUMBER OF PAGES, CHARACTERS, PARAGRAPHS, AND LINES

The Word Count dialog box displays the number of pages, paragraphs, and lines in your document, and also the number of characters, either including or excluding spaces.

On the Review tab, in the Proofing group, click Word Count.

Find Word Count in Microsoft Word Online

To check the word count in Microsoft Word Online, you need to follow these simple steps:

1. Launch Word Online. Go to office.live.com and sign in with your Microsoft account credentials. Alternatively, you can use the free version without signing in, but you will have limited features and storage space.
2. Open a document. On the left side of the screen, you will see a list of your recent documents. Click on the one you want to edit. If you don’t see it, you can click on Open from OneDrive or Open from Dropbox at the bottom left corner and browse your cloud storage folders. You can also create a new document by clicking on New blank document at the top left corner.
3. Review the word count. Once you have opened a document, look at the bottom left corner of the screen. You will see the word count displayed in the status bar. It will update automatically as you type or edit your document. If you want more details, such as the number of pages, characters, paragraphs, or lines, you can click on the word count and a pop-up window will appear with the statistics.