Microsoft KB Archive/114180

= WD: Word Count Does Not Count Spaces =

Article ID: 114180

Article Last Modified on 11/23/2006

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APPLIES TO


 * Microsoft Word 6.0 Standard Edition
 * Microsoft Word 6.0a
 * Microsoft Word 6.0c
 * Microsoft Word 95 Standard Edition
 * Microsoft Word 95a
 * Microsoft Word 6.0 for Macintosh
 * Microsoft Word 6.01 for Macintosh

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This article was previously published under Q114180



SUMMARY
In Microsoft Word, when you use the Word Count command on the Tools menu, the result for characters does not include the number of spaces and tabs in your document.

If you choose Summary Info from the File menu and click Statistics, the result for characters also doesn't include spaces and tabs.

The character count feature includes alphabetic and numeric characters including punctuation marks and special symbols, such as periods and commas, but excludes spaces and tabs.



WORKAROUND
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For more information about the support options that are available and about how to contact Microsoft, visit the following Microsoft Web site:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=fh;EN-US;CNTACTMS

The following macro counts all the characters in the document including spaces and tabs- Example 1: Sub MAIN If IsMacro Then MsgBox "This will not run in a macro window." Else ScreenUpdating EditBookmark .Name = "NumCharPlaceHolder", .Add EditSelectAll Number = Len(Selection$) - 1 StartOfDocument If SelInfo(12) <> - 1 Then EditGoTo .Destination = "t" EndIf While SelInfo(12) = - 1 If SelInfo(12) = - 1 Then Rows = SelInfo(15) * 2 While SelInfo(13) <> SelInfo(15) NextCell : Count = Count + 2 Wend Count = Count + (SelInfo(18) * 2) End If           Number = Number - Count - Rows count = 0 EndOfRow 1 CharRight 2 EditGoTo .Destination = "t" Wend EditBookmark .Name = "NumCharPlaceHolder", .Goto EditBookmark .Name = "NumCharPlaceHolder", .Delete End If     MsgBox "Character Count:" + Str$(Number) End Sub Below is an additional macro which counts all the characters in the document including spaces and tabs to workaround this problem- Example 2: StartOfDocument Count = 0 While CmpBookmarks("\sel", "\endofdoc") <> 0 CharRight 1 Count = Count + 1 Wend MsgBox "word count" + Str$(Count + 1) ' If you would not like to count the last Paragraph mark make ' the last line of the macro read: ' Msgbox "Word Count" + Str$(Count) NOTE: These macros include tabs, spaces and paragraph marks (except the last one in the document). These macros do not take into consideration inline objects. They count each inline object as one character. They do not count text and graphics positioned in the drawing layer.



MORE INFORMATION
This functionality is different in Word 2.x for Windows, which includes spaces, tabs, and paragraph marks in the count.

In Word 97 for Windows and Word 98 Macintosh Edition, the count of characters includes spaces but not tabs.

