The Anchorage

Personal website of Gregory K. Maxey, Commander USN (Retired)

• Quarterdeck
• What's New
• Microsoft Word Tips
• Consulting
• Chain Locker
• Lucky Bag
• Contact
• Search

Do you have ad-blocking software enabled? While I respect your right to do so, your donations and the minimal advertisements on this site help to defray internet and other costs of providing this content. Please consider excluding this website from blocking or turning off the blocker while browsing this site.

The purpose of this Microsoft Word Tips & Microsoft Word Help page is to publish and describe my Count Utility for Word.

Background

I developed this Word Template Add-In after working with a client on a document that spanned over 1,200 pages. I soon discovered that it took considerable time for Word's built-in word count function to process a document of that size and while working with Word over the past 30 plus years, I have noted that the built-in function has several shortcomings.

The development goals were to increase processing speed and, where I could, address each shortcoming listed below.

• Incorrectly counts two or more words separated by Em spaces or En spaces as one word
• Incorrectly counts Em and En spaces as "characters" (not spaces)
• Counts manual line breaks (Shift+Enter) with "Characters with spaces"
• Does not count symbols rendered as image-based glyphs
• Counts list paragraph numbers\bullets (except bullets rendered as image-based glyphs)
• Counts footnote/endnote references (if not placed correctly in relationship to punctuation)
• No provision to exclude specific sections (e.g., Title page, TOC, Appendices)
• No provision to exclude captions
• No provision to exclude tables
• No provision to count words in headers\footers
• Does not categorize\display count for each evaluated document range

Add-In User Interface\Description\Features

The Add-In user interface is a custom VBA Userform that displays when there is an active document and the user clicks the "Launch Utility" button control on the Add-Ins tab or the Quick Access Toolbar (QAT) launch button. 

The configuration of the user interface displayed is determined by the active document content, selected content (if any) and any user selected options.  For a simple basic document with nothing selected, the most likely user-interface displayed is shown below.

The interface enables users to define the scope of the count, the count unit and method of counting.  The preselected defaults are 1) Main Text if nothing selected or the Selected Text if text is selected, 2) Words as the unit and 3) Filtered Array (Unfiltered) as the method.  A simple click on the "CALCULATE" command returns the count in each of the selected scope and the total count.

In a more complex document (e.g., documents with two or more sections, tables, captions, footnotes or endnotes, textboxes or other drawing objects containing text, or comments), the additional scope and the exclude options are enabled.

Users can define these scope to suit their particular needs. 

Scope

The scope checkboxes and option buttons allow the user to specify which content areas in the active document is counted.

• Selected Text - counts the defined unit bound by the selection
• Main Text - counts the defined unit in the main text story range of the document
• Comments - counts the defined unit in the comment story range of the document
• Footnotes - counts the defined unit in the footnote story range of the document
• Endnotes - counts the defined unit in the endnote story range of the document
• Text Frame - counts the defined unit in the Text Frame story range of the document (*)
• Headers & Footers - counts the defined unit in the Header & Footer story range of the document (**)
• Exclude Selective Sections - excludes count of the defined unit in the selected sections
• Excludes Captions - excludes count of the defined unit is the text formatted with the built-in "Caption" style
• Exclude Tables - excludes count to the defined unit in contained in tables located in the main text story of the document

The scope checkboxes and options improves the built-in Word Count utility by providing a means to exclude sections, tables, captions and it returns the specific count for each specific document content region.

* - Counting defined units contained in textboxes or drawing shapes containing text that are anchored to the headers or footers is optional when the Text Frame option is checked.

** - While relatively simple in a basic single section document, counting words (or other units) in headers and footers can quickly become an extremely complex process.

    The elements increasing complexity are documents with two or more sections, the presence of conditional fields (e.g., IF or StyleRef) in headers or footers, the three document story ranges (i.e., First page, Primary pages, Even pages) related to each document section header and footer, the three different options for section start page (i.e., New page, Even page, Odd page) and the presence of textboxes or other shape objects containing text anchored to headers or footers. For processing and handling these complexities, the following options are provided:

      - Disqualified from count if headers/footers contain one or more conditional fields (see Note 1 below).
      - Don't count (leave the "Headers & Footers" checkbox unchecked)
      - Count Once (each section). Sum of the count of occurrences in first page (if used) + count of occurrences in first even
        page (if used) + count of occurrences in first primary page (or odd page if used) in each section
      - Count All occurrences. Sum of the count of occurrences in first page (if used) + count of occurrences in even pages
        * number of even pages (if used) + count of occurrences in primary pages (or odd pages if used) * number of
        primary/odd pages in each section.

    1. The complexity of a process to count the number of words that could result in the header or footer on a particular page as a result of a conditional field is hardly worth the effort and is beyond the scope of this utility.
    2. Due to complexities described above, this feature should be used judiciously, especially with complex documents and if extreme accuracy is critical even validated by a manual count.
    3. Traditional frames anchored to headers or footers are counted with the associated header or footer story range.
    4. To include the count of words contained in textboxes\shape text frames anchored to headers\footers, use the Text Frame and Headers & Footers checkboxes.

Units

The count units available in the default dialog (Filtered Array method) are Words, Characters (with spaces) and Characters (no spaces). Lines, paragraphs and pages are disabled. 

The count units available with the Word Default method are Word, Characters (with spaces), Characters (no spaces), lines, paragraphs and pages.

When the RegEx Pattern method is selected, the default and available unit is "Occurrences."

Unlike the built-in utility that returns the count of all units, this utility returns only the count of the selected unit.

If you need the count of multiple units i.e., both Words and Characters (no spaces), first calculate for word count then select the Characters (no spaces) option and press "CALCULATE."

Methods

The Count Utility for Word provides three counting methods described below:

Method - Word Default

Both the built-in Word Count utility and the Word Default counting method use the VBA "Range.computestatistics" method to evaluate and return the unit count.

The Word Default method continues to exhibit several of the count shortcomings discussed previously, but unlike the built-in Word count utility, the Word Default method supports the scope provided enhancements.

I have provided the Word Default method as a means for count comparison with the Filtered Array Method and to provide the lines, paragraphs and pages count capability.

Note - Undisciplined formatting can result in misleading line counts.  See: Count Lines of Text

Method - Filtered Array

The Filtered Array counting method provides a reliable, more accurate count and, under most configurations (*), a near order of magnitude speed enhancement when processing very large documents. The method works using the following process:

• Converts all non single space white space characters (i.e., non-breaking spaces, line breaks, carriage returns, etc.) in the text to evaluate into single spaces characters
• Uses a Regular Expression (Regex) object to filter out all but the defined pattern characters (one of three built-in or a user defined).
• Creates a singe dimension array delimited on single space characters from the resulting filtered text stream
• Returns the count of the elements contained in the array.

*Note certain scope and exclusion configurations can have a significant negative impact on processing speed. For example, when one or more sections are excluded with footnotes, endnotes or comments are also checked, the process then much check each individual footnote, endnote or comment to determine if its reference anchor is located in a counted section. For  documents with a large number of footnotes, endnotes or comments, this anchor reference check can add significant processing time.

Unlike Word's built-in word count utility and the Word Default method decribed above, this method:

• Correctly processes Em and En spaces
• Does not count manual line breaks as spaces
• Does not count footnote/endnote reference numbers regardless of placement
• Counts all symbols (if not explicitly or implicitly filtered)
• Counts all list numbers and bullets (optional)

Pre-Defined Patterns

I have created and defined three built-in patterns to facilitate common count requirements:

• "Unfiltered" Returns and counts an array filtering only white space.
• "[^A-Za-z0-9 ]" Filters and removes all characters not defined in the pattern and returns a text stream containing only alphanumeric characters (except numeric characters in automatic numbered list strings, see notes below) and the space characters.
• "[^A-Za-z ]" Filters and removes all characters not defined in the pattern and returns a text stream containing only alpha characters and the space characters.

1. The default ""Unfiltered"" option with "Count List Numbers\Bullets" will return a count that most closely matches Word's default word counter. For a comparison, open the template add-in as the active document and compare the Word Default method count with the Filtered Array method count.  A table explaining the variations is included for reference.

Users may enter any valid RegEx pattern to customize the the count by filtering (excluding) characters, words or phrases to suit a particular need. The following are just a few examples provided for illustration:

• "\b\w{1,2}\b"
  This example exclude words or expressions < 3 characters in length.
  
• "b\really\b|\bvery\b|\bjust\b|\bdefinitely\b|\bcertainly\b|\bprobably\b|\bactually\b|\bbasically\b|\bvirtually\b"
  This example excludes a couple of user defined unnecessary filler words or words that don't add information.

A RegEx filter pattern can range from relatively simple to extremely complex. They can be unforgiving and require careful and thoughtful construction using character classes, quantifiers, wildcards, anchors, grouping, escape characters etc., to prevent misleading or confusing results. The internet is replete with references for creating RegEx filter and match expressions and examples.

I used the following reference for creating the examples used in this tips page: https://docs.validatar.com/docs/commonly-used-regex

Note: VBA does not support advanced LookBehind RegEx patterns.

Options

The "Match Case" option is enabled with user defined patterns and ensures strict pattern matching.

The "Word Boundaries" option is enabled with user defined patterns and is provided to simplify pattern construction.

In the examples provided above, I used the RegEx word boundary anchor "\b" to ensure that only the complete words defined were filtered. While not critical in the examples above, consider:

As previously mentioned, RegEx can be unforgiving. Without the word boundaries defined in the RegEx pattern, the RegEx object filtered out all of the selected text.  Probably not what the user intended!  Checking the "Word Boundaries" will modify the simplified pattern entered to enclose each of the elements in word boundary anchors.

Use of the Word Boundaries option should be limited to single or multiple word entries where the "|" character indicates a logically Or expression.  This is not a "hard" rule, but use in more complex expressions may result in inaccurate counts.   

The "Count List Numbers\Bullets" option allows you to include or exclude list number numbers and bullets in the count.

Method - RegEx Pattern

Unlike the Filtered Array method which filters and excludes a defined RegEx pattern, the RegEx Pattern method looks for matching patterns in the text to evaluate.  When this method is selected, the returned unit in the selected scope(s) and total count is "occurrences."

The method has no assigned default pattern and three predefined patterns a user may select.  As with the Filtered Array method, users may also define and create any properly constructed RegEx pattern.

Pre-Defined Patterns

As illustrated above, the predefined user selectable patterns are:

• U.S. Phone Numbers - matches standard format 10 or 7 digit U.S. phone numbers
• Standard E-mail addresses - matches standard email addresses
• Dates - matches most U.S. and European date formats

These are relatively complex RegEx patterns that I have predefined in the underlying VBA code.

Users may enter any valid RegEx pattern to match and count occurrences in the evaluated text.

Options

The "Match Case" option is enabled with user defined patterns and ensures strict pattern matching.

The "Word Boundaries" option is enabled with user defined patterns and is  provided to simplify pattern construction.

The "Mark Occurrences" option causes all matched occurrences to be flagged in the evaluated text with the default highlight color.

In the illustration below, the user wishes to count and flag all occurrences in the text where the length of the word exceeds 12 characters.

In the example above, I explicitly defined the word boundary anchors "\b" in the pattern in lieu of using the "Word Boundaries" option.  With the "Word Boundaries" option checked, "\w{12,}" would have worked equally as well.

In the example below, I used a pattern and options to match, count and flag occurrences of several unnecessary filler words or words that don't add important meaning to the text. 

Download the Count Utility for Word here: Count Utility for Word

For more on template add-ins and how to load them, see: Organizing Your Macros/Template Add-ins at: Installing Macros

Note: The Add_in and this tips page, illustrations and examples were developed using Word Microsoft Express Web, Snagit and Microsoft Word 2019.

That's it! I hope you find the Count Utility for Word useful and have found this tips page informative.

This page was last updated on August 16, 2026

Website Privacy Statement

Back to top     Back to Word Tips