Very puzzling word count

[aitch]

On my machine there are a number of stories I have written - varying from
over 70000 words down to about 1000. I need the number of words to let
potential editors know when I submit something to them and use the normal
Word Count that comes with Windows.

These are stored in a sub-section of Documents. Today I discovered that a
right click offers "more" - giving me extra column categories than I didn't
know about, and they include one specifically titled Word Count. This seemed
like manna from Heaven until I created and used this extra column.

Some of the variations between the original W Count from the document and
the one automatically inserted by Windows in the column are quite striking.

For example: (Doc count first) 3959........3032 Diff of 927 words;
3786 3161 "
625 "
12279 10321 "
1958 "
5687 4565 "
1122 "

Then, strangely there are 2 sets of figures which match exactly at 2668 and
918 and a novel length work at 71796 has a difference of just 3 words.

The original word count I used is in Word from Office Pro XP ( now being
used on Vista) and the column figures are from Vista itself.

Sorry if my sets of figures bore some of you folks out there but what is
happening is puzzling and any explanation would be wecomed.

Thank you,

Aitch.

 

[Gordon]

On my machine there are a number of stories I have written - varying from
over 70000 words down to about 1000. I need the number of words to let
potential editors know when I submit something to them and use the normal
Word Count that comes with Windows.

Umm WHAT "normal word count that comes with Windows" - word count is
normally a function of a Word Processing application - Windows doesn't have
(AFAIK) a word processor that does word count - so what ARE you using?

 

[John Barnett MVP]

One assumes, from your description, that you are using Microsoft Word? This
isn't part and parcel of Windows Vista or any other incarnation of Windows,
so you are really posting in the wrong newsgroup. While you 'may' get an
answer from this newsgroup I suggest you re-post in the Word (new user)
group
http://www.microsoft.com/communitie...sers&mid=d5526273-cd75-4e22-a248-a009b51df7c6


--

--
John Barnett MVP
Associate Expert
Windows Desktop Experience

Web: http://xphelpandsupport.mvps.org
Web: http://vistasupport.mvps.org

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[Mark L. Ferguson]

It counts the page breaks. Insert a few and the count will go up in the
details view, but not on the word count dialog.

 

[aitch]

Thanks for your advice, Mark. Invariably all the page breaks are natural ones
- I always try to avoid inserting any. I'm moving on now - see the other note
from me in the thread.

Aitch.

 

[aitch]

Point taken John. I seldom use these pages and must have missed the right
group in the listings. I will re-post as you advise.

Cheers

H