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?

Microsoft 365 and Office | Word | For home | Windows

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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. Anonymous
    2012-12-15T03:07:21+00:00

    To activate/deactivate it in Word 2010, right-click on the Status bar and check/uncheck the column option. Thanks for your help macropod as it works just how I wanted it I did see that list of options but I was looking for the word characters not columns Why use a term that people understand when you can confuse them by changing it just for the **** of it Thank you microsoft :-(

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  2. Jay Freedman 208.3K Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
    2012-12-15T16:58:11+00:00

    Word 2003 did use "columns" (or at least the abbreviation "Col") in its status bar. Nowhere does it say "characters".

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  3. Anonymous
    2013-01-08T02:00:19+00:00

    Thank you Mr. Paul Edstein!! Excellent answer and very easy to do. Happy 2013!!

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