Knowing your word count is essential when completing essays, assignments, reports, articles, applications, and other documents. Fortunately, you do not always need to count the words manually.
Microsoft Word and Google Docs have built-in word-count features, while PDF files can be a little more challenging. In this guide, we will look at different methods to check the number of words in your document.
How to Count Words in Microsoft Word
Microsoft Word has built-in word counter to make checking your document easy.
On a Computer
Open your document in Microsoft Word.
Look at the bottom of your Word window.
You should see the word count on the status bar.
If you cannot see it, right-click the status bar and select the Word Count.
You can also select Review from the top menu and choose Word Count.
The Word Count window can give you more information such as the number of pages, words, characters, paragraphs, and lines.
If you want to count words in only part of a document, you do not always need to count the whole thing.
If you want to check a specific part, highlight the text you want to analyze. Microsoft Word will show the word count for the selected part.
This is a useful feature if you have a specific word limit for one part of your assignment or report.
How to Count Words in Google Docs
Google Docs also has a built-in word-count feature.
On a Computer
Open your document in Google Docs.
Click Tools.
Select Word count.
A box will appear with information about your document.
Depending on your document, Google Docs can give you the number of pages, words, characters, and characters, excluding spaces.
Google Docs also gives you a keyboard shortcut to open quickly the word-count window.
On Windows and ChromeOS, press Ctrl + Shift + C.
On Mac, press Command + Shift + C.
This can be helpful when you need regularly to check your word count.
How to Count Words in a PDF
PDF documents can be very different since some PDFs have selectable text while others might have scanned pages or images.
If you can select and copy the text from a PDF, you can copy it and paste it into a word-counting tool.
If the PDF has scanned pages or images, you might need text-recognition software before the words can be analyzed.
For simple PDF, copy the content and paste it into TakueWordCount.
👉 Check your PDF text with TakueWordCount:
TakueWordCount Free Tool
How to Count Words Online
An online word counter can be helpful if you do not have Microsoft Word or Google Docs available.
You simply need to copy your text, open a word-counting tool, and paste your content.
TakueWordCount can analyze:
Words
Phrases
Characters
Spaces
Paragraphs
Lines
This makes TakueWordCount useful for students, writers, bloggers, job seekers, and anyone else who needs to check the length of written content.
Why Check Your Word Count Before Submitting?
Checking your word count before submitting or publishing your work can help you avoid issues.
For example, an assignment might have a requirement of 1,000 words, while an application might have a specific character limit. A blog post might need to stay inside a specific length for your own writing needs.
Checking your word count gives you an opportunity to remove any unnecessary information or to add more where required.
What Is the Difference Between Words and Characters?
Words and characters count two very different things.
Word count tells you the number of individual words your text contains.
Character count measures different things such as individual letters, numbers, punctuation, spaces, and others, depending on the counting method.
For example, a short sentence can only contain a few words but can have lots of characters.
This is why checking both can be useful, depending on the content you are working with, as well as the writing type.
An Easy Way to Check Your Writing
When you have your document open, checking its length is easy.
The 1 Step:
Select and copy the text you want to analyze.
Open TakueWordCount.
Paste your text into the tool.
Check your word, character, phrase, space, paragraph, and line counts.
Make any changes that needed to your writing.
👉 Count your words online with TakueWordCount:
TakueWordCount
Final Thoughts
Microsoft Word and Google Docs make checking word counts easy, right inside your documents. PDF files might take on extra step, especially if the text cannot be selected.
If you want a quick way to analyze copied text, an online word-counting tool can be a useful addition.
Whether you are checking an essay, report, blog post, application of other document, knowing your word and character count can help you to stay within the requirements of your writing task.
👉 Check your text with TakueWordCount:
TakueWordCount Free Tool