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Word count location in Pages

In the new pages, the only place the word count seems to appear is actually located over the document being worked on, obscuring part of the text.


Also, to see the word and character counts at the same time, you have to click.


As a translator, editor and copywriter, my job is often to pare a text down to an exact number of words and/or characters. Having both visible, live, all the time is something I can do easily in an inspector in Pages '09.


Is there any way to get this functionality back in Pages 2013?

Mac Pro, Mac OS X (10.7.5), TextEdit: 1.7.1 (289.5), Pages: 4.3

Posted on Oct 24, 2013 7:07 AM

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10 replies

Nov 15, 2013 12:20 PM in response to BenHemmens

You can't sadly. It seems Apple has simplified iWork to the extent that it wishes to bring it in line with their iOS versions of the apps.


However, it seems that they were 'testing the water' with this shift and annoucned not long after the introduction of the new versions that they will be bringing back some of the features from previous versions, such as the word count for example, after some people complained that it had become too simple.


In the meantime, you can still use the old iWork '09 apps by searching for iWork in the Spotlight search bar, there you should see the old apps placed in a folder called 'iWork '09', for you to continue using.

Nov 15, 2013 7:14 PM in response to BenHemmens

You can roll your own counting solution for Pages v5. The following AppleScript and Ruby code will pop a dialog with the results of counting characters, words, and paragraphs — in selected document text -- or if you choose command+A, the entire document. The character count includes spaces.


In your /Applications folder, double-click Automator. It will present a file dialog. Click On My Mac, and New Document. Another dialog box will appear. Click the Service (gear icon) and press Choose.


You now have essentially, two smaller columns on your left, and a larger workflow window on the right. On the left, under Library, click Utilities, and within the adjacent scrollable window, locate Run AppleScript. Click and drag the Run AppleScript workflow item into the right workflow window, and release it.


At the top of this Workflow window, you want Service receives selected text in any application. You will leave Output replaces selected text unchecked. In the Run AppleScript window, select all of the content. Now replace it by copying and pasting all of the code below into that window. File > Save... your new service with a short, but recognizable name (e.g. Charcnt). This service will be saved in your home Library/Services location. Quit Automator.


When you select text in any application, you simply choose the Services submenu under that Application name and select your new Service. You do not have to copy content to the clipboard for this service to work. Here's the code:



on run {input, parameters}

          try
               set MySelectedText to input as text
               set numChars to (the number of characters of MySelectedText) as integer
               set numWords to (the number of words of MySelectedText) as integer
               set numPara to (the number of paragraphs of MySelectedText) as integer
               set formatted_output to setValues(numChars, numWords, numPara)
               set theResult to "The selected text contains:" & return & formatted_output

                display dialog theResult with title "Selection Concordance" ¬
                              with icon note buttons {"Ok"} default button 1

          on error errmsg number errnum
                display dialog errmsg & "[" & errnum & "]" buttons {"Ok"} default button 1 with icon stop
          end try

          return input
 end run

on setValues(fchar, fword, fpara)
       (*
          use Ruby to right-justify these numbers in report form.
      *)
          set rb to ¬
               "values = Array.new\nvalues = ARGV\nprintf(%Q/%7d\tCharacters\n%7d\tWords\n%7d\tParagraphs/, *values)"
          do shell script "/usr/bin/ruby -e " & rb's quoted form & " " & fchar & " " & fword & " " & fpara

end setValues

Word count location in Pages

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