35

Is it possible to view the word count for a selected text in Notepad++?

I'm been able to view the current number of selected characters and lines in the bottom status bar.

Status Bar word count

I'm able to view the total number of words in my document by opening View → Summary.

Word Summary

Unfortunately, neither option lets me view the word count for my currently selected text.

9 Answers 9

Reset to default
9

This can be achieved with the TextFX plugin for Notepad++.

  1. Install the plugin by clicking Plugins -> Plugin Manager -> Show Plugin Manager
  2. Check TextFX Characters in the list of available plugins and click Install (Notepad++ will need to restart to finish the installation)
  3. After installation finishes, you can view the word count for the selected text by going to the TextFX menu, selecting TextFX Tools and finally Word Count:

TextFX Screenshot

2
  • 1
    You don't need TextFX for this :)
    – DavidPostill ♦
    Jul 6, 2017 at 20:10
  • 14
    It seems that TextFX is not there anymore.
    – skan
    May 13, 2018 at 19:54
13

In Notepad++ you can get the words count in two ways

  1. In menu, View => summary
  2. In status bar, Double click on the length: <some_number>, line : <some_number> then you can see words count in a pop up windows

enter image description here

3
  • 7
    This shows the word count of the whole document. He asked for the word count of the selected text
    – Mo Prog
    Jun 22, 2018 at 17:39
  • 1
    @MoProg : kindly see the last line of the dialog. it shows how many chars are selected
    – Sasikumar Murugesan
    Jul 6, 2018 at 3:04
  • 11
    But as you say, it is the number of chars, not the number of words. He is asking for the number of words in the selected text.
    – Mo Prog
    Jul 6, 2018 at 7:27
9

Is it possible to view the word count for a selected text?

  • Menu "Search" > "Mark".

  • Set "Find what" to \<\w+\>.

  • Enable "In selection".

  • Click "Mark All".

  • The bottom of the dialog will update with "Mark: n matches.

  • Click "Clear all marks" to remove the marks.

Example:

enter image description here

4
  • 2
    Even better, there is a specific count button now
    – Baldrickk
    Apr 6, 2018 at 11:12
  • 2
    1. Search mode: Regular expression, 2. \< and \> are not required
    – MarianD
    Aug 25, 2019 at 12:51
  • @MarianD {shrug} my answer works. If you have a better answer please write your own answer.
    – DavidPostill ♦
    Aug 25, 2019 at 12:56
  • 2
    @David, I didn't want to offend you, you answer is nice, I upvoted it before I wrote my comment. IMHO the setting of Search mode is important enough to be explicitly stated in your answer.
    – MarianD
    Aug 25, 2019 at 13:07
4

The TextFX plugin mentioned in the accepted answer is still not available in the 64bit version of Notepad++, which in 2021 is the version everybody will be using.

There is a trivial solution to counting all the words in a selected region, which does not involve plugins and does not require one to remember regex syntax.

  1. One can select the desired text
  2. Copy it with Ctrl+C
  3. Create a new tab with Ctrl+N
  4. Paste the selected text with Ctrl+V
  5. Count all the words on that tab with the View/Summary... menu
  6. Or double click on the length:... line:... field on the status bar

This requires three extra keystrokes but is pretty quick and simple

enter image description here

enter image description here

1
  • I wouldn't underestimate how many people are using the 32 bit version. I'm still using the 32 bit version for add on compatibility. This is a good workaround for 64 bit users though.
    – Stevoisiak
    Dec 14, 2021 at 17:15
0

2022 update - TextFX is not available for npp 64-bit.

Alternate solution using RegEx search

  1. Select the text.
  2. Press Ctrl+F to open search window.
  3. Enter \w+ in the search bar.
  4. Select "In selection".
  5. Select "Regular Expression" in Search mode.
  6. Press "Count" to view word count at the bottom of the search window.

enter image description here

-1

Have you tried the TextFX plugin? You can download it from SourceForge: https://sourceforge.net/projects/npp-plugins/files/TextFX/

-1

Do a simple Find and Replace with the exact same phrase. The Find dialog box will tell how many replacements there would be.

1
  • I don’t understand what you mean. Can you explain a little more clearly? … … … … … … … … Please do not respond in comments; edit your answer to make it clearer and more complete.
    – Scott - Слава Україні
    Mar 30, 2019 at 23:39
-1

If you click on a word in your document, then bring up the Find dialogue, there is a button right there on that dialogue labeled Count.

1
  • 4
    OP asks for counting all the words within a selection, not a secific word.You are counting the number occurrences of one word.
    – Toto
    Aug 24, 2019 at 9:32
-1

Fastest solution (2 seconds) is:

  1. mark the word or expression you want to count it occurence in your document by double klick 2.go to menue search -> incremental search you will see right next to the search box the amount of matches Screenshot

Alternative:

  1. mark the word
  2. Ctrl + Alt +I
1
  • 5
    OP asks for counting all the words within a selection, not a secific word.You are counting the number of occurrences of a single word.
    – Toto
    Mar 8, 2021 at 17:16

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