Microsoft word makes it too easy count characters in each document. It is possible that we use the status bar or that we directly use the function that is dedicated to this option. In this article, we are going to see how to achieve it on any device.
By default, Word will display the number of characters in the document. However, if we want to see the number of characters in a specific extract, then we are going to have to use the methods that we will see a little further down.
Let’s remember that in Word we can also divide a page into several parts, if we want to count the number of characters or words, in this case, we can apply the following methods equally.
Count the number of characters in Word
Using the status bar
The first of the options will be the status bar found at the bottom of any Word document. By default, this bar already shows a count of the number of words in the document. Although we can also edit it and add the option to show the characters.
What we will do is open a Word document. After this we are going to right click on the status bar at the bottom and choose the option that says “Character count (with spaces)”.
In this simple way, we are going to see the number of characters that the current document has. In case we want to see the character count for a specific section of text, all we have to do is highlight the text and look at the count in the status bar again.
word count tool
But we also find another way to count the number of characters we have in our document. We will be able to count words from the Word ribbon, it is an excellent option because it shows other interesting information such as: number of paragraphs, line count, total words, etc.
To use this option we will have to go to the “Review” tab on the ribbon at the top.
Once we are in this tab, we will have to go to the Review section and click on Word count.
Immediately, a Word Count window opens. Here we can see all the details we are looking for.
See number of letters or characters from the web app
From the Word web app it is also quite easy to count the number of words. We will have to use a web browser and Start Word. On the document screen, we will go to the ribbon at the top and click Review.
Here we are going to select Word Count.
We will see that a new window called Document Statistics opens, this window will allow us to see the number of characters that the document that we currently have open has.
Count words from iPhone, iPad and Android
In the case of the application for iPhone, iPad and Android, finding the number of characters is not easy. However, the option is available and we can access it. To achieve this, we will start by launching the application on our mobile device and open the document in which we want to count the number of characters or words.
In the upper part of our document we are going to have to press the icon in the form of a pencil. After doing so, we are going to have to press the icon that has an A and a pencil.
A new menu opens where we will have to press Start and then Review.
In this section we will choose Number of words.
In the Word Count panel, we can see not only the number of words, but also the characters.
In the same way that we can do with the desktop version, it is possible to highlight specific parts of the text before opening the word count to know the exact number of words in that paragraph.
