How to Check the Word Count on Google Docs | MakeUseOf

Do you want to find out how many words, characters, or pages your Google Docs document contains? The Google Docs word count tool tells you just that. This nifty little feature keeps count of the words in your document and presents the information to you whenever you need it.

Here’s how to check your word count in Google Docs on both desktop and smartphones.

Check the Word Count in Google Docs on Desktop

Google Docs on desktop offers both a menu item and a keyboard shortcut to let you see the word count.

Here’s how you use both of these methods in your document. We’ll show you how to find the word count for your entire document and for a particular selection.

1. Find the Word Count for Your Entire Google Docs Document

If you want to find the number of words for your entire document, you can do it with just a couple of clicks in Google Docs.

1. Launch your document in Google Docs on the web.
2. Click the Tools menu at the top and select Word count. Alternatively, press Ctrl + Shift + C in Windows or Command + Shift + C in macOS.

   
   

3. A window appears showing you the word count for your document. It tells you the total number of words, pages, and characters.

   
   

4. Click OK to close the box.

2. Find the Word Count for Selected Text in Google Docs

If you want to find the word count for a paragraph, a sentence, or any other selected text in Google Docs, just follow the same method.

1. Select the text you want to find the word count for using your mouse or keyboard selection keys.
2. Click the Tools menu at the top and select Word count.
3. The window that appears now says X of Y words, where X is the number of words for your selected text and Y is the total number of words in your document.

   
   

3. Add an On-Screen Word Count to Google Docs

Google Docs offers a real-time word counter to add to your document editing screen. With this tracker enabled, you don’t need to open the Tools menu each time you want to see the word count.

Here’s how to activate the on-screen word counter in Google Docs:

1. Select the Tools menu at the top and click Word count.
2. Tick the Display word count while typing box.
3. Your Google Docs word count appears in the lower-left corner.

   
   

Bear in mind that the word count only appears in this document. You need to enable it for each other document that you create or edit.

Check the Word Count in Google Docs on a Smartphone

Google Docs for Android and iOS also offers a word count feature. You can access this feature just as easily as you can on a desktop browser.

1. Find the Word Count for Your Entire Google Docs Document on Mobile

1. Open your document in the Google Docs app.
2. Tap the Three Dots (…) at the top-right corner and select Word count.
3. You should see the word count for your entire document.

   
   

   
   

2. Find the Word Count for Selected Text in Google Docs on Mobile

1. Select the text you want to find the word count for.
2. Tap the Three Dots (…) at the upper-right corner and choose Word count.
3. It says X of Y, where X is the number of words you’ve selected and Y is the total number of words in your document.

Is Word Count Available for Google Sheets and Google Slides?

Google Sheets and Google Slides don’t offer a word count feature. However, there are workarounds that let you find the word count for these online apps.

In Google Sheets, you need to use the following formula to count the words in your selected cells. This should work just as well as the official word counter in Google Docs.

=COUNTA(SPLIT([INSERT CELL NUMBERS], " "))

For Google Slides, there’s currently no method except for copying the content from your slides and pasting it back into Google Docs to use the word count feature there.

For other types of documents, there are usually plenty of free word count tools available online.

Counting Your Words in Google Docs Has Never Been This Easy

Whatever document it is you’re working on, if you need to keep track of your words, Google Docs’ word counter is an extremely useful tool for you. It eliminates the need to find and install a third-party extension.

As if Google Docs doesn’t have built-in features already, there are also lots of add-ons you can install to further extend its capabilities. These extensions usually fill any other gaps that Docs is yet to bridge.

Source: makeuseof.com