Count the number of words in a document

Keywords automatic word count; character count; count words; line count

Microsoft Office Word 2007 counts the number of words in a document while you type. Office Word 2007 can
also count the following:

Pages

Paragraphs

Lines

Characters, either including or excluding the spaces

What do you want to do?

Count the words as you type
Count the words in a selection or selections
Include text in footnotes, endnotes, and text boxes in the word count
Count the words in a text box
Count the number of pages, characters, paragraphs, and lines

Count the words as you type

When you type in a document, Office Word 2007 automatically counts the number of pages and words in your
document and displays them on the status bar at the bottom of the workspace.

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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
section accounts for 100 words of the total number of words in the document, 1,440.

TIP

To select sections of text that aren't next to each other, select the first section, and then hold

down CTRL and select additional sections.

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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.

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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.

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.

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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, as well as
the number of characters, either including or excluding spaces.

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

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Read related questions and answers from other Microsoft Office customers.

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Insert a symbol or special character

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You can use the Symbol dialog box to insert symbols, such as and , or special characters, such as an em
dash () or ellipsis () that are not on your keyboard, as well as Unicode characters.

The types of symbols and characters that you can insert depend on the font that you choose. For example, some
fonts may include fractions (), international characters (, ), and international monetary symbols (, ). The
built-in Symbol font includes arrows, bullets, and scientific symbols. You might also have additional symbol fonts,
such as Wingdings, that include decorative symbols.

NOTE

You can increase or decrease the size of the Symbol dialog box. Move the pointer to the lower-right

corner of the dialog box until it changes into a double-headed arrow, and then drag to the size that you want.

What do you want to do?

Insert a symbol
Insert a special character
Insert a Unicode character

Insert a symbol
1.

Click where you want to insert the symbol.

2.

On the Insert tab, in the Symbols group, click Symbol.

3.

Do one of the following:

Click the symbol that you want in the drop-down list.

If the symbol that you want to insert is not in the list, click More Symbols. In the Font
box, click the font that you want, click the symbol that you want to insert, and then
click Insert.

NOTE

If you are using an expanded font, such as Arial or Times New Roman, the

Subset list appears. Use this list to choose from an extended list of language characters,
including Greek and Russian (Cyrillic), if available.

4.

Click Close.

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Insert a special character

1.

Click where you want to insert the special character.

2.

On the Insert tab, in the Symbols group, click Symbol, and then click More Symbols.

3.

Click the Special Characters tab.

4.

Click the character that you want to insert, and then click Insert.

5.

Click Close.

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Insert a Unicode character

You can insert a Unicode character into a document by selecting a character from the Symbol dialog box or by
typing the character code directly in a document.

Select a Unicode character from the

Symbol dialog box
When you select a Unicode character in the Symbol dialog box, its character code appears in the Character
code box.

1.

Click where you want to insert the Unicode character.

2.

On the Insert tab, in the Symbols group, click Symbol, and then click More Symbols.

3.

On the Symbols tab, in the Font box, click the font that you want.

4.

In the from box, click Unicode (hex).

5.

If the Subset box is available, click a character subset.

6.

Click the symbol that you want to insert, and then click Insert.

7.

Click Close.

Use the keyboard to insert a Unicode

character code in a document
If you know the character code, you can enter the code in your document and then press ALT+X to convert it into
a character. For example, press 002A and then press ALT+X to produce *. The reverse also works. To display the
Unicode character code for a character that is already in your document, place the insertion point directly after
the character and press ALT+X.

Find a Unicode character code

When you select a Unicode character in the Symbol dialog box, its character code appears in the Character
code box.

1.

On the Insert tab, in the Symbols group, click Symbol, and then click More Symbols.

2.

On the Symbols tab, in the Font box, click the font that you want.

3.

In the from box, click Unicode (hex).

4.

The Unicode character code is displayed in the Character code box.

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