Can you exclude things from the word count?

[Leane_88]

Hi,
I'm writing an essay in which the tutor would like us to not include the
references (Author and Date) within the word count. Is there a way that I can
exclude any words within the brackets from the word count as they all have
different names etc?
Thanks
Leane

 

[Peter T. Daniels]

Not without considerable tedium, though it might be possible to create
a macro to do this?

Using Ctrl-Clicking and dragging, select all but the references (when
text is selected, word displays the count of selected text: if not
directly in the status bar, then when you click on the count number
there); or, format each reference as Hidden text. (Word doesn't count
Hidden text.)

 

[macropod]

Hi Peter,

Hidden text *is* counted when the print hidden text option is active. This gives one the ability to mark the references as hidden
text and, by toggling between the print/not print hidden text options, get the word count or print the document with/without hidden
text.

--
Cheers
macropod
[Microsoft MVP - Word]


Not without considerable tedium, though it might be possible to create
a macro to do this?

Using Ctrl-Clicking and dragging, select all but the references (when
text is selected, word displays the count of selected text: if not
directly in the status bar, then when you click on the count number
there); or, format each reference as Hidden text. (Word doesn't count
Hidden text.)

 

[Peter T. Daniels]

Don't you get the same effect just by toggling Show/Hide Hidden Text?
The problem is still marking all those discontinuous globs of text.

Hi Peter,

Hidden text *is* counted when the print hidden text option is active. This gives one the ability to mark the references as hidden
text and, by toggling between the print/not print hidden text options, get the word count or print the document with/without hidden
text.

--
Cheers
macropod
[Microsoft MVP - Word]

Not without considerable tedium, though it might be possible to create
a macro to do this?

Using Ctrl-Clicking and dragging, select all but the references (when
text is selected, word displays the count of selected text: if not
directly in the status bar, then when you click on the count number
there); or, format each reference as Hidden text. (Word doesn't count
Hidden text.)

Hi,
I'm writing an essay in which the tutor would like us to not include the
references (Author and Date) within the word count. Is there a way thatI can
exclude any words within the brackets from the word count as they all have
different names etc?
Thanks
Leane-

 

[macropod]

Hi Peter,

Don't you get the same effect just by toggling Show/Hide Hidden Text?

No. Only changing the print setting affects the word count. You can verify this with a NUMWORDS field.

Assuming the references are in a form like (Tinsley, 1965, p15) or (Tinsley, 1965), one could probably use a wildcard Find/Replace
to make the references hidden, with-
Find: \([!\,]{1,10}\, [0-9]{3}[!\)]{1,}\)
Replace: ^&
and the replacement text set to hidden.


--
Cheers
macropod
[Microsoft MVP - Word]


Don't you get the same effect just by toggling Show/Hide Hidden Text?
The problem is still marking all those discontinuous globs of text.

Hi Peter,

Hidden text *is* counted when the print hidden text option is active. This gives one the ability to mark the references as hidden
text and, by toggling between the print/not print hidden text options, get the word count or print the document with/without
hidden
text.

--
Cheers
macropod
[Microsoft MVP - Word]

messageNot without considerable tedium, though it might be possible to create
a macro to do this?

Using Ctrl-Clicking and dragging, select all but the references (when
text is selected, word displays the count of selected text: if not
directly in the status bar, then when you click on the count number
there); or, format each reference as Hidden text. (Word doesn't count
Hidden text.)

Hi,
I'm writing an essay in which the tutor would like us to not include the
references (Author and Date) within the word count. Is there a way that I can
exclude any words within the brackets from the word count as they all have
different names etc?
Thanks
Leane-

 

[Peter T. Daniels]

Depends how precise Leane needs to be -- In Chicago style, for
instance, there can be up to three authors per reference, and if there
are more than three you use "et al."

Hi Peter,

Don't you get the same effect just by toggling Show/Hide Hidden Text?

No. Only changing the print setting affects the word count. You can verify this with a NUMWORDS field.

Assuming the references are in a form like (Tinsley, 1965, p15) or (Tinsley, 1965), one could probably use a wildcard Find/Replace
to make the references hidden, with-
Find: \([!\,]{1,10}\, [0-9]{3}[!\)]{1,}\)
Replace: ^&
and the replacement text set to hidden.

--
Cheers
macropod
[Microsoft MVP - Word]

Don't you get the same effect just by toggling Show/Hide Hidden Text?
The problem is still marking all those discontinuous globs of text.

Hi Peter,

Hidden text *is* counted when the print hidden text option is active. This gives one the ability to mark the references as hidden
text and, by toggling between the print/not print hidden text options, get the word count or print the document with/without
hidden
text.

messageNot without considerable tedium, though it might be possible to create
a macro to do this?

Using Ctrl-Clicking and dragging, select all but the references (when
text is selected, word displays the count of selected text: if not
directly in the status bar, then when you click on the count number
there); or, format each reference as Hidden text. (Word doesn't count
Hidden text.)

On Jan 8, 3:03 pm, Leane_88 <[email protected]>
wrote:

 

[Greg Maxey]

If the writer is aware of this condition from the start he or she could
create a unique character style to apply to the reference text and perhaps
come close to a qualified word count using:

Sub ScratchMaco()
Dim oWord As Range
Dim i As Long
i = 0
For Each oWord In ActiveDocument.Range.Words
If Not oWord.Style = "Reference" Then
If Len(Trim(oWord)) > 1 Then
i = i + 1
Else
If Trim(oWord) Like "[A-Za-z]" Then
i = i + 1
End If
End If
End If
Next oWord
MsgBox i
End Sub



Not without considerable tedium, though it might be possible to create
a macro to do this?

Using Ctrl-Clicking and dragging, select all but the references (when
text is selected, word displays the count of selected text: if not
directly in the status bar, then when you click on the count number
there); or, format each reference as Hidden text. (Word doesn't count
Hidden text.)

 

[Greg Maxey]

Even if the paper is already completed the writer may be able to Find:
\(*\) using a wildcard search and replace with ^& formatted with the unique
character style. This would of course require that only references are
marked parenthetically in the paper if ReplaceAll were used but even using
the selective replace and find next would reduce the tedium significantly.
Once properly marked the macro earlier may be a solution.

If the writer is aware of this condition from the start he or she could
create a unique character style to apply to the reference text and perhaps
come close to a qualified word count using:

Sub ScratchMaco()
Dim oWord As Range
Dim i As Long
i = 0
For Each oWord In ActiveDocument.Range.Words
If Not oWord.Style = "Reference" Then
If Len(Trim(oWord)) > 1 Then
i = i + 1
Else
If Trim(oWord) Like "[A-Za-z]" Then
i = i + 1
End If
End If
End If
Next oWord
MsgBox i
End Sub



Not without considerable tedium, though it might be possible to create
a macro to do this?

Using Ctrl-Clicking and dragging, select all but the references (when
text is selected, word displays the count of selected text: if not
directly in the status bar, then when you click on the count number
there); or, format each reference as Hidden text. (Word doesn't count
Hidden text.)

Hi,
I'm writing an essay in which the tutor would like us to not include the
references (Author and Date) within the word count. Is there a way that I
can
exclude any words within the brackets from the word count as they all
have
different names etc?
Thanks
Leane

 

[macropod]

Hi Peter,

In Chicago style, for instance, there can be up to three authors
per reference, and if there are more than three you use "et al."

Fair enough, but the basic Find code I posted can handle things like that - at most one might need to increase the 10 in {1,10} to,
say, 20. The only thing that needs to be watched for is that other, non-reference, bracketed expressions (with commas & 3-digit+
numbers in them) don't inadvertently get processed.

--
Cheers
macropod
[Microsoft MVP - Word]


Depends how precise Leane needs to be -- In Chicago style, for
instance, there can be up to three authors per reference, and if there
are more than three you use "et al."

Hi Peter,

Don't you get the same effect just by toggling Show/Hide Hidden Text?

No. Only changing the print setting affects the word count. You can verify this with a NUMWORDS field.

Assuming the references are in a form like (Tinsley, 1965, p15) or (Tinsley, 1965), one could probably use a wildcard Find/Replace
to make the references hidden, with-
Find: \([!\,]{1,10}\, [0-9]{3}[!\)]{1,}\)
Replace: ^&
and the replacement text set to hidden.

--
Cheers
macropod
[Microsoft MVP - Word]

messageDon't you get the same effect just by toggling Show/Hide Hidden Text?
The problem is still marking all those discontinuous globs of text.

Hi Peter,

Hidden text *is* counted when the print hidden text option is active. This gives one the ability to mark the references as
hidden
text and, by toggling between the print/not print hidden text options, get the word count or print the document with/without
hidden
text.

messageNot without considerable tedium, though it might be possible to create
a macro to do this?

Using Ctrl-Clicking and dragging, select all but the references (when
text is selected, word displays the count of selected text: if not
directly in the status bar, then when you click on the count number
there); or, format each reference as Hidden text. (Word doesn't count
Hidden text.)

On Jan 8, 3:03 pm, Leane_88 <[email protected]>
wrote:

 

[Bapsi]

Hi,
I'm writing an essay in which the tutor would like us to not include the
references (Author and Date) within the word count. Is there a way that I can
exclude any words within the brackets from the word count as they all have
different names etc?
Thanks
Leane

Yes it is in fact possible using a web app:

Check out Excludify: excludify.com

While it is not possible to exclude what’s in brackets and quotes from the word-count in Microsoft Word or Pages you can use a web tool designed to do it for you, called Excludify: excludify.com

You simply upload your .docx / .doc file or copy & paste your text into the textbox. Scroll down to see all the excluded brackets & quotes. Include the ones that are actually part of the word-count back in. Your ‘real’ word count will appear in the header.

Excludify is pretty neat, and I’ve been using it constantly to check my ‘real’ word count when I wrote my academic essays. I even upgraded to pro so it would remember what I wanted in-and what outside my word-count each time I came back to re-count the essay.

 

[mvanle]

This can be done with Hidden font.

A VBA tool derived from this technique is available here: ezcite.sourceforge.net