Some Best Ways to See Live Word Count in Google Docs

Some Best Ways to See Live Word Count in Google Docs.

Google Docs makes it easy to see the real-time word count of any document. You can view the word count for the entire Google Docs document or only selected words.

In this article, we’ll look at several ways to see real-time word count for Google Docs, including several additional Google Doc apps that include real-time word counters and third-party websites that you can use to check word count in Google Docs. your document. documents.

1. Enable Live Word Count in Google Docs

As you can imagine, the Google Workspace team has created a built-in word count tool that you can use for any Google document in your Google Drive. If you’re using Google Docs in a browser, select Tools > Word Count at the top of the page from the menu above the toolbar. You will see a pop-up window with information about the number of pages, words, characters, and symbols, excluding spaces in the document.

If you select the Display word count when typing check box and click OK, the word count will be displayed in the lower left corner of the screen. The real-time word count is constantly updated as you type. If you prefer to display the number of pages or the number of characters instead, you can select these options from the drop-down menu.

Use keyboard shortcuts to quickly turn the word count display on and off in Google Docs. On a Mac, press Command + Shift + C, while PC users can press Ctrl + Shift + C.

On Android and iOS, you can view your word count in the Google Docs app by tapping the three-dot icon and then selecting Word Count.

It’s important to remember that Google Doc’s own word count tool doesn’t count words inside headers, footers, or footnotes.

The word count field will display the number of characters in the document, including and excluding spaces.

2. Word Counter Max for Google Docs

Word Counter Max for Google Docs (WC Max) is an add-on with many features not found in native Google Doc word counter. For example, you can enter the total number of words and WC Max will display your progress. This can be useful if you have a word limit written assignment and want to know how close you are getting.

WC Max also includes a session word count feature, so if you get listed you can see exactly how productive you were. Being able to check these statistics can help you improve your workflow so you can get more done faster.

This add-on lets you choose exactly what counts as a word. You can exclude text in parentheses, text in square brackets, or text inside tables. You can even tell the add-in to exclude paragraphs that start with certain words. Another interesting feature is reading time estimation.

Select the full WC Max view, the minimal view, or select the basic floating view to display the word count box in the middle of the screen.

3. Outwrite

Outwrite is a Google Docs add-on that is much more than just a word counter. Formerly known as GradeProof, Outwrite offers potential spelling, grammar, style, and structure improvements.

Outwrite also provides valuable statistics, including counts of characters, words, sentences, syllables per word, and words per sentence. It generates class-level readability and reading scores for your document, as well as reading and speaking time.

If you want to use Outwrite for anything other than the basic spelling and grammar features, you’ll need to upgrade to one of the paid plans starting at $9.95/month.

4. PB Author Tools

The PB Author Tools add-on for Google Docs is designed for authors of illustrated books for children, but it has tools that any writer will find useful.

The manuscript word count tool displays the number of words, excluding illustration notes. It recognizes artistic notes as any single text within square brackets [ ] or any line of text containing standard illustration abbreviations such as Illo:, Illus:, Illus note, Art note, Illustration note, or Art.

PB Author Tools can also tell you the frequency of words in your document, displayed as a list or word cloud.

5. WordCounter.net

WordCounter.net is one of the few sites dedicated to word counting. Just copy your text and paste it into WordCounter.net and it will tell you how many words and characters you have.

You can customize your site settings to display a variety of statistics, including:

Average characters per sentenceAverage words per sentenceAverage word lengthReading level Reading timeNumber of unique words

The Keyword Density panel and Find and Replace tool can also be helpful. However, perhaps the best feature of WordCounter.net is the Check button. Select it and the site will read your text aloud to you. Turn up the volume, because you’re more likely to recognize a typing error if you hear it out loud.

6. TheWordCounter.com

TheWordCounter.com is another website where you can paste text and it will display the word count and other information.

You’ll find word, character, sentence, paragraph, and page counts, as well as a Keyword in Action panel.

Check out TheWordCounter.com FAQ for great information on how to convert word count to page count. For example, 500 words in 12-point font usually correspond to one single-spaced page or two double-spaced pages.

7. Open in Microsoft Word

Our last suggestion for viewing the word count in your Google Doc is to upload the document as a Microsoft Word document. When you export a Google Doc to .docx format, you can open it in Word and view the word count there.

Users of the Microsoft Word for Windows desktop application can select Review > Word Count to view the number of words in a document.

macOS users must click on the word count in the status bar to open the Word Count window. And if you’re using Word for the web, you’ll see the word count in the document in the bar at the bottom of Word Online in edit mode.