When writing documents in Word, checking the word count helps ensure accurate content. The Word Count feature makes it easy to count words and characters.
The following instructions will help you quickly perform this task on different versions of Word.
How to count words in Word
Currently, many versions of Word are used by consumers, and Free Download will guide you on how to use them from Word 2003 to versions 2007, 2010, 2013, and 2016.
1. In Word 2003
Step 1: Highlight the entire text you want to count the words in.
Step 2 : Next, on the toolbar, click on Tools and select Word Count as shown below.
Step 3: A small dialog box will appear with all the parameters, which you can understand as follows:
- Pages: Count the number of pages
- Words: Count the number of words or characters in a document.
- Character (no spaces): Counts characters excluding spaces.
- Character (with spaces): Counts characters including spaces.
- Paragraphs: Count the number of paragraphs in a page of text.
- Lines: Counts the number of lines in the document.
As shown in the image above, Word 2003 counted a total of 112 words.
2. In Word 2007
Step 1: Highlight the entire text you want to count.
Step 2: Look at the bottom left corner and you will see the Word count. Double-click on it, and a dialog box will appear listing the number of characters counted.
Similar to Word 2003, you can see all the parameters such as: Pages, Words, Character (no spaces), Character (with spaces), Paragraphs, Lines.
3. In Word 2010, 2013, 2016
Step 1: Highlight the entire text you want to count.
Step 2: Locate the display bar in the bottom corner of Word and double-click it to open the Word Count dialog box, as shown below.
Similar to counting characters in Word 2003 and 2007, the Word Count dialog box provides us with complete information.
With Word's word count feature, you can quickly check the total number of words and characters directly within the software without needing any additional tools. This is especially useful when writing long essays, helping you control the text length more accurately. If using Google Docs, you can also check the word count directly using the built-in feature. Additionally, optimizing the text layout in Word during the writing process makes the content clearer and easier to read.