Pages 14.4 word count not showing full details automatically

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Pages 14.4 word count not showing full details automatically

In Apple Pages version 14.4, on MacBook Pro, MacOS Sequoia 15.6,

I know how to show the word count "pop-up menu" or whatever it is called on the bottom of the screen but unless I click it, it will not show the details. It just shows 1 or 2 or 3.. boxes followed by the aspect that it is showing (--whatever I last selected it to show, for instance "words"). Seeing will help you understand:

It is this:

and it should show "26 words" as I can determine when I click on it like this:

This hasn't worked right for me for years. Any suggestions as to why and how to fix? It is very inconvenient to have to click to see. Disabling and re-enabling (with shift - command - W) does not fix it.

Thanks for your attention

MacBook Pro 13″, macOS 15.6

Posted on Jan 9, 2026 7:27 AM

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Answer 1

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VikingOSX

Level 10

123,422 points

Jan 9, 2026 9:11 AM in response to OttoRapp

When you select Show Word Count from the Pages v14.4 View menu, it may not initially show the word count until you click on that floating panel at the bottom of the Pages window. Once you select words from that selector, the document will continue to show the count of words in the document on that floating panel. It remains set to words across document edits, or even if you select Hide Word Count and then later reselect Show Word Count.

That's the normal discussion. I have never encountered the empty number boxes in any Pages version since v5 in Oct 2013. The first advice I would give is to update your Sequoia version to 15.7.3 (current as of this post), and see if that resolves this issue with Pages v14.4. No one else has reported this display issue.

When you select System Settings > General > Software Update, that panel will present Tahoe 26.2 as the dominant installation available. But if you look lower on that panel, you will likely see another entry for macOS 15.7.3. When you select that, only 15.7.3 will be updated, not Tahoe. Always keep macOS up to date.

I am betting the whole System update and subsequent reboots will rebuild your System font database, and the empty boxes shown by Pages will be replaced by the word count numbers.

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