You can use Tools> Word Count which will display the total [assign a keystroke to it or add it to a Toolbar if you wish] & you can -- at least temporarily -- insert a NUMWORDS field in the Header or Footer, delete it when no longer needed. Today, we are announcing the general availability of Office 2019 for Windows and Mac. Office 2019 is the next on-premises version of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Project, Visio, Access, and Publisher. Office 365 ProPlus, the cloud-connected version of Office, delivers the most productive.
Count the number of characters, lines, and paragraphs You can view the number of characters, lines, paragraphs, and other information in your Word for Mac, by clicking the word count in the status bar to open the Word Count box. Unless you have selected some text, Word counts all text in the document, as well as the characters, and displays them in the Word Count box as the Statistics. Count the number of words in a part of a document To count the number of words in only part of your document, select the text you want to count. Then on the Tools menu, click Word Count. Insert the word count into your document You can also insert the word count into your Word document and if you choose, update the information as often as you want. • Click in your document where you want the word count to appear. • Click Insert > Field.
• Under Categories, click Document Information, and then under Field names, click NumWords. Click OK to add the word count field to your document. Display the status bar and view number of characters To display the status bar in Word for Mac 2011, on the Word menu, click Preferences, click View, and then under Window, select the check box next to Status bar. To see the number of characters, lines, paragraphs, and other information, click the word count in the status bar to open the Word Count box.
Unless you have selected some text, Word counts all text in the document, as well as the characters, and displays them in the Word Count box as Statistics. Count the number of words in a part of a document To count the number of words in only part of your document, select the text you want to count. Then on the Tools menu, click Word Count. Insert the word count into your document You can also insert the word count into your Word document and if you choose, update the information as often as you want. • Click in your document where you want the word count to appear.
• Click Insert > Field. • Under Categories, click Document Information, and then under Field names, click NumWords.
Click OK to add the word count field to your document.
You may be thinking to yourself, 'I've got the system beat - I know about the NumWords field.' It's not as accurate as you think it is.
See, the NumWords field counts: • The total number of words in the document; but • Excludes words in footnotes, endnotes and text boxes. That may make it useful in some contexts, but in a legal document, you typically want to include the footnotes/endnotes but exclude the introductory material (like the Table of Authorities) and other required text like a certificate of service.