Check the word count in Microsoft Word

Depending on what you’re working on, like a theme for a school assignment, you may immediately need a specific word count that you need to hit (or miss). You can quickly know what the current word count is in Microsoft Word.

How to check word count in Microsoft Word for Windows

You can get the word count for the whole Word document or you can get the word count of just a specific section in Word for Windows.

Get the word count of an entire document

The easiest way to get the word count of your entire Word document is to simply check the status bar, as the word count is displayed by default. You can find the word count to the left of the status bar at the bottom of the window.

If you don’t see word count in the status bar, it may have been previously disabled. You can reset the word count by right clicking on any area of ​​the status bar and then choosing “Word Count” from the context menu.

Alternatively, to get the word count, click the “Review” tab, then choose “Word Count” in the Proofing group.

Get the word count of a specific section of a document

You can also get the word count of a specific section in a Word document. This is useful if you need to keep the entire word document within a certain number of words but feel that you are too verbose in a specific section.

All you have to do is highlight the section of the document you want to get the word count for by clicking and dragging the mouse over the text. Once highlighted, the selected word count will appear in the status bar in a format x of y : x is the selected word count and y is the total word count in the document.

Or, highlight the text whose word count you want to get, click “Word Count” on the “Review” tab, then select the number next to Words in the dialog box.

How to check word count in Microsoft Word for Mac

You can also get the word count of an entire Word document (or just a specific section) on Mac. The process is similar to Windows.

Get the word count of an entire document

To get the word count of the whole Word document, check the word count to the left of the status bar at the bottom of the window. The word count function is added here by default.

You can also get the word count of the document by clicking on “Tools” in the header menu and then choosing “Word Count”.

The word count is displayed next to Words.

Get the word count of a specific section of a document

You can also get the word count of a specific section. To do this, highlight the text you want to get the word count by clicking and dragging the cursor over the text. Once selected, check the word count in the status bar. The first number represents the selected word count.

Alternatively, open the Word Count dialog (Tools> Word Count) and then check the number next to Words.