Word keeps track of quite a bit of summary information for your documents. One of the pieces of information maintained is the number of characters in your document and another is the number of words. This information is updated whenever the document is saved or printed. Word allows you to insert this summary information into your document by following these steps:
Figure 1. The Field dialog box.
By combining the NumChars and NumWords fields, you can easily calculate the average word length. To do this, follow these steps:
{={NumChars}/{NumWords}}
Remember: The {braces} shown in step 6 are not typed in; they are created by pressing Ctrl+F9 in steps 2, 3, and 5.
WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (7124) applies to Microsoft Word 2007 and 2010. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Word here: Word and Character Count Information.
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2013-02-02 10:20:50
awalto
I also tried this, but when I placed the cursor before the = sign inside the first field braces and hit F9 to update, I go a syntax error.
2013-02-02 10:10:16
Upasini
I tried this, but when I add more words to the document, it does not update it even after I have saved. What should I do to update the word count.
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