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I was wondering if there's a way to get a word count that excludes text with a specific Style in a Microsoft Word 2007 document?

I've seen this related question, but I've got blocks of source code scattered throughout which would mean I'd have to go through each of my documents a section at a time..

Does anyone know a way to do this with a macro or a splash of VB Script or some such?

2 Answers 2

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Old thread, I know, sorry! But I just found a way to do this...

  • Edit the style you would like to exclude, choose Format > Font and set the font to "Hidden".
  • Click the Big Office Button > Word Options > Display and tick "Show Hidden Text".

This will display the hidden text on the screen but exclude it from the Word count. To ensure that it prints in your final version, either edit the style again, or choose Big Office Button > Word Options > Display and tick "Print hidden text".

Plus... You can also mark individual sections/paragraphs as "hidden" and they will also be excluded from the word count.

Hope that helps somebody!

Simon.

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  • This is much simpler way to follow :)
    – Roy Lee
    Nov 10, 2013 at 9:45
  • 1
    This is such a clunky solution, but it works to exclude text from word count fields. Just what I was looking for, thanks! Mar 26, 2015 at 0:35
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Based on this answer for previous versions of Microsoft Word, I've found the following manual solution to my question:

  1. In the 'Home' ribbon-bar thingy, click on the small pop-out expandy-button in the far bottom right of the Styles group (which shows the Styles window - Alt+Ctrl+Shift+S)
  2. For the desired Style you want a Word Count for, click the drop-down next to the style name, and click 'Select All x Instance(s)'
  3. The Status bar (bottom left) gets updated with the Word Count for the selected Style (or you can open the 'Review' ribbon, and click 'Word Count' in the Proofing group - which also works on the current selection).

Bonus tip - you can hold the Ctrl key while clicking the 'Select All x Instance(s)' of another Style to have multiple Styles selected!

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  • This is most helpful. The bonus tip didn't work. How should I do that on mac?
    – crazjo
    Sep 17, 2019 at 18:25
  • This is a quick and easy way to check the word count of text(s) with specific style(s). However, if you want to have a word count field inside your document that excludes specific text from the count, the solution proposed by @simon worked for me.
    – fabilous
    Oct 18, 2020 at 8:57

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