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How to check the word count in Microsoft Word

Know your limit, write within it.
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Published onJanuary 3, 2023

When you’re putting together any document, it’s always a good idea to keep an eye on your word count. In school, you’re typically given a word limit for papers and presentations. When writing professional documents, you never want to leave too little white space. Microsoft Word makes tracking your cumulative word count extremely easy. Let’s review how to check word count in Microsoft Word.

Read more: How to make a brochure in Microsoft Word

QUICK ANSWER

To check word count in Microsoft Word, highlight the text you want to check. Click Review > Word Count.


JUMP TO KEY SECTIONS

How to check word count in Microsoft Word

word count in microsoft word
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As you write in Microsoft Word, your word count appears in the status bar at the bottom. This number increases and decreases in real-time to reflect the current amount of content you’ve written.

How to check the word count on selected text in Microsoft Word

Checking selected word count from the status bar

selected words word count
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When you highlight text in your document, the word count in the status bar will display how many out words are selected out of the total number.

Checking selected word count from the Review tab

Highlight the text you want to check the word count for.

highlight the section you want to word count for
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Click the Review tab.

click review at the top word
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Click Word Count.

click word count word
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Your word count will appear in a pop-out.

word count results microsoft word
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How to check word count in the Microsoft Word app

Accessing your word count data in the Word app is a little bit more complicated, but it can still be done from the Review tab.

  1. Tap the up arrow in the toolbar at the bottom.
  2. In the More Commands menu (or the button that should read “Home”), select Review.
  3. Tap Word Count.

Read more: How to get Microsoft Word for free

FAQs

No. Information in footnotes does not count toward your total word count.

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