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How do you get a word count in a Pages doc?

Hi all. This is my first time here. I've been using Pages for a long time and love it. Just now I am doing some writing and would like to know my word count, but do not see how to do that. Is this not possible in Pages?


Thanks for any help.


Joan

iMac (20-inch Early 2008), Mac OS X (10.5.8)

Posted on May 11, 2012 9:38 PM

Reply
9 replies

May 11, 2012 11:07 PM in response to Joan Peck

Hi Joan,


A 'live' word count of the entire document is reported at the bottom left of the document window.

User uploaded file

Here 125% is the magnification at which the screen image of a page is being presented, 1 is the number of 'words' that is selected, 4,007 is the total word count for the document, 6-9 are the pages (partially) visible on the screen, and 27 is the total page count for the document.


You can also obtain a word count via the Edit menu:

User uploaded file

Other options in this sub-menu are greyed as nothing was selected at the time.


Regards,

Barry

May 12, 2012 7:43 PM in response to Barry

Hi Barry - thanks for the reply. I do not see the same information you see when I look at the lower left of my page. I see the size of page with arrows next to increase or decrease magnification, then the page number of total pages. I am using version 3.03. When I try the feature Show Statistics under Edit, I do not get anything. How did you grab those screen shots and insert them? Awesome.

Joan

May 12, 2012 10:55 PM in response to Joan Peck

Hi Joan,


The 'live' word count was apparently added with Pages '09.


With Pages '08 v3.0.3, I get the same display at the bottom left of the page as you, ino the cluding another pair of triangles used to move to to the next or previous page—not quite the same as clicking in the space below or above the 'thumb' in the scroll bar—these move the next/previous defined page, rather than the next/previous screen.


Edit > Show Statistics

brings up the Document Inspector, with the Info pane selected:

User uploaded file

You can get to the same place with these steps:

  • Click the Inspector button.
  • In the Inspector, click the first button (Document)
  • In the Document Inspector, click the Info button.


Screen shots have been built in to the Mac OS almost forever. Shift-command-3 takes a shot of the whole screen, and places it in a file named either 'Picture n' where n is a serial number for the individual shot (in recent OS X versions this has been changed to 'Screen Shot...' with a date/time identifier appended).

Add ctrl (control) to the keystroke combination, and the shot goes to the clipboard rather than a file, and the shot may be pasted into a document.

Use '3' in place of '4', and you get a cross-hair cursor, which you can use to select only part of the screen to include in your screen shot.


Summary (for those of you taking notes, write this down. 😉 )


shift-command-4: shot of whole screen, saved to the Desktop as 'Picture n' or 'Screen Shot...'

shift-command-3: gives a crosshair cursor. Drag a rectangle to enclose the part of the screen you want included, then release the mouse button. shot is saved to the Desktop as 'Picture n' or 'Screen Shot...' (This is the process used for most screen shots posted to these forums.)

shift-ctrl-command-4: As shift-command-4, but shot is copied to clipboard, not to a file.

shift-ctrl-command-3: As shift-command-3, but shot is copied to clipboard, not to a file.



Screen shots (and other images) posted here must start asa file on your computer.


Click the camera icon at the top of the Compose window.

Click choose file in the dialogue that opens.

Navigate to and select the file you want to place in the message.

Click Choose.

Click Insert file.


Regards,

Barry

Jul 11, 2014 5:55 AM in response to Joan Peck

Word count is shown in:


Pages ’09


Enable Pages Preferences > General: check Show word count at window bottom. 2 Page view is in the percentage selector. Looks like this:

User uploaded file

Pages v5 (5.2 as of this post date)


View > Show Word Count. The word count display is also capable of showing characters without spaces, characters with spaces, paragraphs, and pages.


Roll your pointer over this floating box when it appears, and you will observe up/down arrows. Click on these to get a menu of items to choose from, including Words. If you do not like the floating box location, press the command key and then click/drag/drop this box to the desired placement. Looks like this:

User uploaded file

How do you get a word count in a Pages doc?

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