As someone who has to constandly write to a certain word count, I’m constantly bringing up my document’s statistics in Word so see how close I am to my limit. This morning, when starting an article I decided to look for a simpler way. Well, it turns out that Word (starting with the 2002 version) has a “Word Count toolbar”. To turn it on select View|Toolbard|Word Count from the menus. (Feel free to dock this toolbar wherever you feel it’s appropriate.) Unfortunately, the count doesn’t update as you type (oh how I wish it would) but to get an updated word count for your document all you now need to do is click on the Recount button.
Michael Sauers is the Technology Manager for Do Space in Omaha, NE. After earning his MLS in 1995 from the University at Albany's School of Information Science and Policy Michael spent his first 20 years as a librarian training other librarians in technology along with time as a public library trustee, a bookstore manager for a library friends group, a reference librarian, a technology consultant, and a bookseller. He has written dozens of articles for various journals and magazines and has published 14 books ranging from library technology, blogging, Web design, and an index to a popular horror magazine. In his spare time, he blogs at TravelinLibrarian.info, runs The Collector's Guide to Dean Koontz website at CollectingKoontz.com, takes many, many photos, and typically reads more than 100 books a year.
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