Use the word count feature

When you’re writing a document, it can be helpful to know how many words you’ve written.

Perhaps you’re writing a funding application with word restrictions. Or maybe it’s an academic essay that has to be over a certain number of words, or maybe you’re a writer trying to get down a certain number of words each day.

Whatever the reason, Word makes this easy.

When you’re in your Word document, the bottom left of your screen lists some important details: the page you’re on, the number of words, and the proofing language.

Look at the word count: it will look something like this:

If you click on this, you’ll get a more detailed account:

How many words in a certain section

You may need to know how many words are in just a section of your document – no problem. Click and drag with your mouse to highlight the section. You’ll notice the word count now tells you “X of Y words”, like this:

Again, you can click on it to get a more details account:

Pro tip: The keyboard shortcut for the detailed word count is Alt and T, then W.