Software & Apps > MS Office Displaying Word Count in Microsoft Word View Word and character counts in a document By Rebecca Johnson Rebecca Johnson Freelance Contributor Rebecca Johnson is a former freelance contributor to Lifewire and a Microsoft Office Certified Master Instructor who specializes in Microsoft Office products. lifewire's editorial guidelines Updated on October 12, 2021 Reviewed by Jon Fisher Reviewed by Jon Fisher Wichita Technical Institute Jonathan Fisher is a CompTIA certified technologist with more than 6 years' experience writing for publications like TechNorms and Help Desk Geek. lifewire's editorial guidelines Tweet Share Email Tweet Share Email MS Office Word Excel Powerpoint Outlook You may need to know how many words are in your Microsoft Word document for a school or work assignment or to meet publishing requirements for a blog post or other document. Microsoft Word counts the words as you type and displays this information in a simple form in the status bar at the bottom of the document window. For expanded statistics on character count, paragraphs, and other information, open the Word Count window. Instructions in this article apply to Word for Microsoft 365, Word 2021, Word 2019, Word 2016, Word 2013, Word 2010, and Word 2016 for Mac. Word Count in Word for PCs The status bar displays how many words are in a document without requiring you to open another window. If you don't see the word count in the status bar, right-click the status bar and choose Word Count to display the word count. Count Selected Text in Word for PCs You can also count the number of words in part of a document. To view how many words are in a sentence or a paragraph in the Word versions for PCs, select the text. The word count of the selected text displays in the status bar at the bottom of the document. To count the words in several text boxes at the same time, press and hold Ctrl while you make the text selections. How to Open the Word Count Window When you need more than a word count, additional information is available in the Word Count window. To open the Word Count window in all versions of Word, go to the status bar and select the word count. The Word Count Window contains information on the number of: PagesWordsCharacters, not counting spacesCharacters, with spacesParagraphsLines Place a checkmark in the box next to Include Textboxes, Footnotes, and Endnotes if you want them included in the count. Select the text you want to count. Select the Review tab. In the Proofing group, select Word Count. Word Count in Word for Mac In Word for Mac, select the word count in the status bar. This displays the number of words, characters, lines, and more. The status bar displays the word count of the entire document unless you select a part of the text. In this case, the count for the selected text displays. Was this page helpful? Thanks for letting us know! Get the Latest Tech News Delivered Every Day Subscribe Tell us why! Other Not enough details Hard to understand Submit