Where is the word count tool?

G

Guest

Can someone please help! Where is the word count function in Word 2007?
There's no tool menu like there used to be. I need this desperately!! Thanks!
 
S

Suzanne S. Barnhill

You can add it to your status bar.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA

Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.

abbyvfb said:
Can someone please help! Where is the word count function in Word 2007?
There's no tool menu like there used to be. I need this desperately!!
Thanks!
 
G

Guest

Hi,

You'll find the Word Count function under the "Review" tab (under "Set
Language"). I hope it helps,

Cheers,

Thierry Fontenelle [MSFT]
 
J

Joe

This version is the worst!!! It took me way too long to find this simple
function:
Click on "Review" tab. In left box (spelling and grammar) next to
"Translate"
is a little box - 123. That's the word count button.

MS software is such a scam. Why do they make it so difficult? Because they
can.

cheers

Joe in Durango, CO
 
D

digitig

Suzanne S. Barnhill said:
Live word count is on the status bar.

But only sometimes updates. Specifically, if you select part of a text the
live word count /should/ show the number of words in the selected portion
before the number of words in the whole text. Sometimes it does, and that's
great. Sometimes it doesn't, which sucks. In my latest college assignment
there are blocks of plain text for which, if I select them, the live word
count will show the word count for the selection. There there are other
blocks of plain text for which, if I select them, the live word count will
continue to display only the total for the document and I have to go to the
word count button on the review tab to get the count.

So I'm afraid I'm at least partly with "Joe in Durango, CO". Word count in
the status bar would be a great feature if it worked consistently. It
doesn't, so it's a real nuisance that the version that /does/ work is so hard
to find.
 
B

Bob Buckland ?:-\)

Hi Digitig,

Could you provide some steps to reproduce the behavior?

Is this typed text, or text pasted from a non-Word document pasted in?

What font are you using and what view are you working in.

Generally, the type of behavior you mentioned can occur if the font is a symbol font (even if the 'symbols' look 'letterlike') as
Word then doesn't see 'words' just characters, but clicking on the Wordcount item on the Word 2007 status bar at the bottom of the
screen should bring up the count dialog and a character count that does 'see' these characters but the Word count may not appear
correctly.

============
Live word count is on the status bar.

But only sometimes updates. Specifically, if you select part of a text the
live word count /should/ show the number of words in the selected portion
before the number of words in the whole text. Sometimes it does, and that's
great. Sometimes it doesn't, which sucks. In my latest college assignment
there are blocks of plain text for which, if I select them, the live word
count will show the word count for the selection. There there are other
blocks of plain text for which, if I select them, the live word count will
continue to display only the total for the document and I have to go to the
word count button on the review tab to get the count.

So I'm afraid I'm at least partly with "Joe in Durango, CO". Word count in
the status bar would be a great feature if it worked consistently. It
doesn't, so it's a real nuisance that the version that /does/ work is so hard
to find. <<
--

Bob Buckland ?:)
MS Office System Products MVP

*Courtesy is not expensive and can pay big dividends*
 
O

Older Than You

Oh great, I guess we are supposed to be mind-readers and just know all this.

"Could you provide some steps to reproduce the behavior?"
Isn't MS supposed to be telling US where these behaviors are? Didn't
someone test this before releasing it? Why to users have to point out the
problems?

But I guess if there is no regard for the amount of lost productivity caused
by someone in MS not having anything better to do than completely change the
UI, there certainly is no interest in telling customers how the new UI
actually works (when it does).

===
 
D

digitig

Bob Buckland ?:-) said:
Hi Digitig,

Could you provide some steps to reproduce the behavior?

Unfortunately no, I've not found a pattern to it yet. Mind you, I've only
just noticed it (it's the first time I've needed word count since moving to
Office 2007) so I'll keep a look out to see if I can make it reproducible.
Is this typed text, or text pasted from a non-Word document pasted in?

This is text I have typed in. It's a college assignment in which I need to
do 1000 words for the first part and 300 for each of the second and third
parts. The partial counts were showing fine for the parts 1 and 2, not at all
for part 3. I kept typing and selecting, and after a bit more typing and
selecting the word count started appearing as it should (now I just need to
get my word count down by about 20%!).
What font are you using and what view are you working in.

Calibri, print layout.
 
S

Stefan Blom

Note that the people answering questions here do not work for Microsoft. And
providing details is necessary, because, as you pointed out, no one here is
a mind-reader.
 
D

digitig

Older Than You said:
Oh great, I guess we are supposed to be mind-readers and just know all this.

"Could you provide some steps to reproduce the behavior?"

To be fair, I'm quite glad that Microsoft can't see everything I'm typing in
my word processor. I do like /some/ degree of privacy!
Isn't MS supposed to be telling US where these behaviors are? Didn't
someone test this before releasing it? Why to users have to point out the
problems?

But I guess if there is no regard for the amount of lost productivity caused
by someone in MS not having anything better to do than completely change the
UI, there certainly is no interest in telling customers how the new UI
actually works (when it does).

Well, I loathe the new UI with a vengeance, especially the way common hot
key sequences are really long (<alt>EF replaced with <alt>HFDF, and try
getting to custom document properties just using the keyboard!) whilst rare
actions have really short sequences (<alt>PH for hyphenation settings and
<alt>PJ to set the columns -- both things that I do once and for all in the
document template), and the way I keep having to switch between ribbon tabs
when on previous version I could have left all the relevant toolbars open for
the task I was performing (when I'm putting a series of figures drawn in a
different tool into a document, I hate the way the crop icon goes away when I
add a caption -- I reckon it pretty much doubles the distance the mouse has
to travel to do the job).

But for all that, when I had trouble with word count I came here and found
that the function I was used to was still available and still worked as it
should, so credit to Microsoft for leaving it in. And when I come here with
what is effectively a bug report, what on earth do you expect /any/
responsible company to do other than ask for the steps to repeat the
behaviour?
 
B

Bob Buckland ?:-\)

Hi Digitig,

Thank you for the additional information. When you mention that it's working in two parts but not the third, can you explain how
you're creating or tracking separate 'parts'?

Is the document all just text?

The 'Words:nn' choice on the status bar does gray out as you're typing and then 'catches up' during pauses, and this can sometimes
happen on first selection of partial document text as well, more so if you have all of the proofing selections turned on for
spelling/grammar/etc 'as you type'.

================
Could you provide some steps to reproduce the behavior?

Unfortunately no, I've not found a pattern to it yet. Mind you, I've only
just noticed it (it's the first time I've needed word count since moving to
Office 2007) so I'll keep a look out to see if I can make it reproducible.
Is this typed text, or text pasted from a non-Word document pasted in?

This is text I have typed in. It's a college assignment in which I need to
do 1000 words for the first part and 300 for each of the second and third
parts. The partial counts were showing fine for the parts 1 and 2, not at all
for part 3. I kept typing and selecting, and after a bit more typing and
selecting the word count started appearing as it should (now I just need to
get my word count down by about 20%!).
What font are you using and what view are you working in.

Calibri, print layout. >>
--

Bob Buckland ?:)
MS Office System Products MVP

*Courtesy is not expensive and can pay big dividends*
 
B

Bob Buckland ?:-\)

Hi Digitig,

On the keyboard shortcuts you mentioned, you may find that many of the old version ones still work <g> as do the new ones.

For example Alt, E, F will still bring up Edit=>Find (as will Ctrl+F). If you press Alt, then E, you should see a tooltip that
Word 2007 recognized that you are using an Office 2003 shortcut key sequence :)

Old ones that don't always work were often on the old File menu (now Office button menu), where properties moved to
Office Button=>Prepare=>Properties so (Alt, F, E, P) works to get you to the 'basic' properties, but the old (Alt, F, I) will
now take you to the 'Office Center' (Word 2007 Options) dialog :)

You can, however, add your own keyboard shortcuts as well, at least in Word <g>. For example to add a keyboard shortcut for the
Word 2003 like properties dialog you can use
Office Button=>Word Options=>Customize=>Keyboard Shortcuts
(Alt, F, I, C)
and from the 'All commands' category, select the FileProperties choice.

You can right click on the Crop tool icon to add-it to the Quick access toolbar, although it does appear in the
Picture Tools=>Format ribbon with a double click of the picture after inserting a caption. :) If you're handy with VBA (which
I'm not <g>, it can probably also be added to the right click menu for pictures as well.

There are a number of different spreadsheets, by example tools and add-ins available that you may find helpful.
:)
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/training/HA102295841033.aspx
http://officelabs.com/projects/searchcommands/Pages/default.aspx


Some folks prefer to work with a minimzed ribbon (ctrl+F1 or double click on a ribbon tab)

===============
Oh great, I guess we are supposed to be mind-readers and just know all this.

"Could you provide some steps to reproduce the behavior?"

To be fair, I'm quite glad that Microsoft can't see everything I'm typing in
my word processor. I do like /some/ degree of privacy!
Isn't MS supposed to be telling US where these behaviors are? Didn't
someone test this before releasing it? Why to users have to point out the
problems?

But I guess if there is no regard for the amount of lost productivity caused
by someone in MS not having anything better to do than completely change the
UI, there certainly is no interest in telling customers how the new UI
actually works (when it does).

Well, I loathe the new UI with a vengeance, especially the way common hot
key sequences are really long (<alt>EF replaced with <alt>HFDF, and try
getting to custom document properties just using the keyboard!) whilst rare
actions have really short sequences (<alt>PH for hyphenation settings and
<alt>PJ to set the columns -- both things that I do once and for all in the
document template), and the way I keep having to switch between ribbon tabs
when on previous version I could have left all the relevant toolbars open for
the task I was performing (when I'm putting a series of figures drawn in a
different tool into a document, I hate the way the crop icon goes away when I
add a caption -- I reckon it pretty much doubles the distance the mouse has
to travel to do the job).

But for all that, when I had trouble with word count I came here and found
that the function I was used to was still available and still worked as it
should, so credit to Microsoft for leaving it in. And when I come here with
what is effectively a bug report, what on earth do you expect /any/
responsible company to do other than ask for the steps to repeat the
behaviour? >>
--

Bob Buckland ?:)
MS Office System Products MVP

*Courtesy is not expensive and can pay big dividends*
 
D

digitig

Bob Buckland ?:-) said:
Hi Digitig,

Thank you for the additional information. When you mention that it's working in two parts but not the third, can you explain how
you're creating or tracking separate 'parts'?

Just a simple Header 1 between the parts. I'm selecting the portion for
which I want the word count.
Is the document all just text?

There's an Excel 2007 chart in there, and a couple of tables, but not in the
part I wanted to count.
The 'Words:nn' choice on the status bar does gray out as you're typing and then 'catches up' during pauses, and this can sometimes
happen on first selection of partial document text as well, more so if you have all of the proofing selections turned on for
spelling/grammar/etc 'as you type'.

Well, I left it selected whilst I searched the net for the issue, found this
forum, read the discussion so far and posted the problem, and it still hadn't
caught up!
 
D

digitig

Bob Buckland ?:-) said:
Hi Digitig,

On the keyboard shortcuts you mentioned, you may find that many of the old version ones still work <g> as do the new ones.

I know, but I get a warning that I'm using an obsolescent key sequence,
which I take to mean I'm going to have to stop sooner or later. And it is
only "some". I don't mind *too* much learning new keystrokes -- I had to do
that between Word 2000 and Word 2003, when, for instance, insert reference
Old ones that don't always work were often on the old File menu (now Office button menu)

And said:
where properties moved to
Office Button=>Prepare=>Properties so (Alt, F, E, P) works to get you to the 'basic' properties, but the old (Alt, F, I) will
now take you to the 'Office Center' (Word 2007 Options) dialog :)

But you'll notice that I mentioned *custom* properties, which my employer
uses extensively in all document templates.
You can right click on the Crop tool icon to add-it to the Quick access toolbar,

Which is fine when I'm doing that task, but it's still there when I'm not.
My point was that I used to have different toolbars with the buttons I needed
for different tasks, and I would keep those toolbars on the screen whilst I
was performing the task. When I moved on to a new task, I would close that
toolbar and open the toolbar associated with the new task (often this would
just be a couple of the standard toolbars, rather than custom ones). I don't
seem to be able to do that any more, so Office is no longer task-oriented.
If you're handy with VBA (which
I'm not <g>, it can probably also be added to the right click menu for pictures as well.

I'm rusty...how is C# integration?
There are a number of different spreadsheets, by example tools and add-ins available that you may find helpful.
:)
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/training/HA102295841033.aspx
http://officelabs.com/projects/searchcommands/Pages/default.aspx

I'll have a look, thanks.
Some folks prefer to work with a minimzed ribbon (ctrl+F1 or double click on a ribbon tab)

I don't think that will help -- I don't mind the presence of the ribbon, I
just mind the abscence of task-oriented tools (except when I'm writing a
simple letter, in which case the ribbon /is/ task oriented).

Regards,

Tim
 
D

digitig

Oh, and I forgot to mention my other big Office 2007 -- I can't get help to
work. Whenever I ask for help I don't get a help page, instead a pile of XML
opens in my XML editor (oXygen).

All the stuff I can find on the web about help problems with Office 2007
relate to Vista systems with Macromedia installed, but I'm running XP Pro and
don't have Macromedia.

So when I can't find a feature I expect in Office 2007, I'm working blind.
 
B

Bob Buckland ?:-\)

Hi Tim,

You're right that in the UI you can't turn off and on toolbars, but you can 'cheat' a bit with the Quick Access Toolbar (and of
course you can customize the ribbon using XML). :)

The Quick Access toolbar holds its 'always visible' information in a standalone file. For Word that's Word.xml, but you can also
have content stored in templates and/or documents that come and go as you either open them or attach them.

So, for graphics work you can create a template (or a document) named, say, pictures.dotm and then put the crop tool on the QAT for
that template. When you need the picture tools you can use Alt, T, I and attach the template or document, When you no longer need
those tools, uncheck the attachment in the same dialog (I imagine you could also create macros that did this for you and have them
either on the permanent QAT or with keyboard shortcuts for them stored in your Normal.dotm template). This tends to work better if
you have only a few entries in the 'always on' part of the QAT or a really wide monitor screen :)

You may want to take a look at the http://toolbartoggle.com add-in. It supports a floating toolbar (actually task pane) for some
features.

I'm not sure what warning you're getting regarding old keystrokes (I'll probably remember once I've had coffee on this Monday
morning <g>).

The 'Custom properties' would be one tab in the older Word 2003 properties dialog? That's a dialog I mentioned in the previous
message that could be assigned a custom keyboard shortcut to be able to pop it up, although not to a specific tab in the dialog :) .

As you can access the object model from C# it would be possible to customize the right click context menus that way, but that would
be something one of the macro maven/programming folks who post here to address for you :)

==========
On the keyboard shortcuts you mentioned, you may find that many of the old version ones still work <g> as do the new ones.

I know, but I get a warning that I'm using an obsolescent key sequence,
which I take to mean I'm going to have to stop sooner or later. And it is
only "some". I don't mind *too* much learning new keystrokes -- I had to do
that between Word 2000 and Word 2003, when, for instance, insert reference
Old ones that don't always work were often on the old File menu (now Office button menu)

And said:
where properties moved to
Office Button=>Prepare=>Properties so (Alt, F, E, P) works to get you to the 'basic' properties, but the old (Alt, F, I) will
now take you to the 'Office Center' (Word 2007 Options) dialog :)

But you'll notice that I mentioned *custom* properties, which my employer
uses extensively in all document templates.
You can right click on the Crop tool icon to add-it to the Quick access toolbar,

Which is fine when I'm doing that task, but it's still there when I'm not.
My point was that I used to have different toolbars with the buttons I needed
for different tasks, and I would keep those toolbars on the screen whilst I
was performing the task. When I moved on to a new task, I would close that
toolbar and open the toolbar associated with the new task (often this would
just be a couple of the standard toolbars, rather than custom ones). I don't
seem to be able to do that any more, so Office is no longer task-oriented.
If you're handy with VBA (which
I'm not <g>, it can probably also be added to the right click menu for pictures as well.

I'm rusty...how is C# integration?
There are a number of different spreadsheets, by example tools and add-ins available that you may find helpful.
:)
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/training/HA102295841033.aspx
http://officelabs.com/projects/searchcommands/Pages/default.aspx

I'll have a look, thanks.
Some folks prefer to work with a minimzed ribbon (ctrl+F1 or double click on a ribbon tab)

I don't think that will help -- I don't mind the presence of the ribbon, I
just mind the abscence of task-oriented tools (except when I'm writing a
simple letter, in which case the ribbon /is/ task oriented).

Regards,

Tim>>
--

Bob Buckland ?:)
MS Office System Products MVP

*Courtesy is not expensive and can pay big dividends*
 
B

Bob Buckland ?:-\)

Hi Tim,

Most of the Office help files are duplicated on
http://office.microsoft.com/help

In Windows Explorer you might want to check to see what file types are associated with the .HX_ series of file types. I don't
recall if running Office diagnostics from
Office Button=>Word Options=>Resources
resets those for the CLView.exe help viewer

===========
Oh, and I forgot to mention my other big Office 2007 -- I can't get help to
work. Whenever I ask for help I don't get a help page, instead a pile of XML
opens in my XML editor (oXygen).

All the stuff I can find on the web about help problems with Office 2007
relate to Vista systems with Macromedia installed, but I'm running XP Pro and
don't have Macromedia.

So when I can't find a feature I expect in Office 2007, I'm working blind. >>
--

Bob Buckland ?:)
MS Office System Products MVP

*Courtesy is not expensive and can pay big dividends*
 
D

digitig

Bob Buckland ?:-) said:
Hi Tim,

Most of the Office help files are duplicated on
http://office.microsoft.com/help

Maybe. But much of my time at work I don't have an internet connection
(customer premises in environments where I can't use a mobile telephone).
In Windows Explorer you might want to check to see what file types are associated with the .HX_ series of file types.

Apparently nothing. They say "Opens with:" but the following text shows that
Windows knows about what the files are. I've compared with a working
intallation and they look the same.
I don't
recall if running Office diagnostics from
Office Button=>Word Options=>Resources
resets those for the CLView.exe help viewer

Apparently not. I should probably try a re-install.
 
D

digitig

:

You may want to take a look at the http://toolbartoggle.com add-in. It supports a floating toolbar (actually task pane) for some
features.

That looks promising, thanks.
I'm not sure what warning you're getting regarding old keystrokes (I'll probably remember once I've had coffee on this Monday
morning <g>).

"Warning" is possibly too strong, but a popup tells me that it's an Office
2003 access key.
The 'Custom properties' would be one tab in the older Word 2003 properties dialog? That's a dialog I mentioned in the previous
message that could be assigned a custom keyboard shortcut to be able to pop it up, although not to a specific tab in the dialog :) .

As you can access the object model from C# it would be possible to customize the right click context menus that way, but that would
be something one of the macro maven/programming folks who post here to address for you :)

When I get a chance (looks like September, but may slip) I'll have a look at
that. I never liked VBA -- I always felt I was working against it rather than
with it -- but I really like C#.
 

Ask a Question

Want to reply to this thread or ask your own question?

You'll need to choose a username for the site, which only take a couple of moments. After that, you can post your question and our members will help you out.

Ask a Question

Top