Display Character Count in Status Bar (Word 2010)

Anonymous
2010-12-25T18:30:36+00:00

I can right-click on the status bar and display the Word Count, but I need to see the Character Count as I type.

How can I display the Character Count in the status bar?

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Paul Edstein 82,871 Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
2010-12-28T03:08:51+00:00

Without programming a new class event to intercept your typing, you can't get a dynamic character count to display on the status bar and, if you did, it would probably prevent anything else displaying there.

You could, though, use a macro like the following and assign a keyboard shortcut to it:

Sub CharCount()

Application.StatusBar = "Character Count = " & ActiveDocument.Characters.Count

End Sub

The above macro temporarily takes over the status bar to display the character count. It gets hidden again as soon as you resume whatever you were doing.

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Answer accepted by question author
Jay Freedman 208.3K Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
2012-03-26T23:18:36+00:00

Technically, something is always selected. If the selection is collapsed to just the insertion point, then the selection is the single character to its right (which may be a paragraph mark). Therefore, the modified macro will show 'Character Count = 1' .

If that makes you unhappy, you can change the macro to this:

Sub CharCount()

If Selection.Type = wdSelectionIP Then

   Application.StatusBar = "Character Count = 0"

Else

   Application.StatusBar = "Character Count = " & Selection.Characters.Count

End If

End Sub

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  1. Paul Edstein 82,871 Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
    2012-03-26T23:43:52+00:00

    If you want the count for the document content at startup, then you can't use Selection.Characters.Count. After all, you won't have selected anything yet. If you want to have both the document character count at startup, and the selection character count afterwards, you can use:

    Sub CharCount()

    Application.StatusBar = "Character Count = " & Selection.Characters.Count

    End Sub

    Private Sub Document_Open()

    Application.StatusBar = "Character Count = " & ActiveDocument.Characters.Count

    End Sub

    That the character count only displays momentarily is normal behaviour - as soon as anything else happens that updates the statusbar (eg you select something), the status bar responds to that.

    As for your lament about the WordCountStats toolbar window in Word 2003, perhaps you should consider adding Word's own word count stats to the status bar, which you can do by right-clicking on the status bar, then checking the 'Word Count' option. Then, if you need the stats for a particular selection, simply click on the word count - you'll get a pop-up that displays the other stats.

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  2. Anonymous
    2012-03-26T23:52:52+00:00

    Paul --

    thanks, will try that.

    As per status bar button, it would be perfect if it could be tuned anywhere to show characters instead of words. Word count is not nearly as ubiquitous anymore as it used to be, and in many cases you need to stick to precise character count (and as web forms proliferate, more and more so - counting words is so 80ish).

    Clicking on status bar is a bad idea because then you need to move your mouse all across the screen to shut down the dialog that does not close itself  on next action - bad, bad ergonomically.

    If you want the count for the document content at startup, then you can't use Selection.Characters.Count. After all, you won't have selected anything yet. If you want to have both the document character count at startup, and the selection character count afterwards, you can use:

    Sub CharCount()

    Application.StatusBar = "Character Count = " & Selection.Characters.Count

    End Sub

    Private Sub Document_Open()

    Application.StatusBar = "Character Count = " & ActiveDocument.Characters.Count

    End Sub

    That the character count only displays momentarily is normal behaviour - as soon as anything else happens that updates the statusbar (eg you select something), the status bar responds to that.

    As for your lament about the WordCountStats toolbar window in Word 2003, perhaps you should consider adding Word's own word count stats to the status bar, which you can do by right-clicking on the status bar, then checking the 'Word Count' option. Then, if you need the stats for a particular selection, simply click on the word count - you'll get a pop-up that displays the other stats.

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  3. Paul Edstein 82,871 Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
    2012-03-27T00:04:35+00:00

    Word count is not nearly as ubiquitous anymore as it used to be, and in many cases you need to stick to precise character count (and as web forms proliferate, more and more so - counting words is so 80ish).

    Really? Perhaps you should get out more. My uni lecturers specify word counts for assignments, not character counts. So I tend to go with big words to convey concepts rather than a string of dimimutive ones that use up the permitted word count.

    In other contexts (eg printed matter), it's the line count that's important, not the word count or character count.

    As for:

    Clicking on status bar is a bad idea because then you need to move your mouse all across the screen to shut down the dialog that does not close itself on next action - bad, bad ergonomically.

    you could use the ESC key ...

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