Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Word versions: 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, 2021, and Word in Microsoft 365. If you are using an earlier version (Word 2003 or earlier), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for earlier versions of Word, click here: Counting a Particular Word.

Counting a Particular Word

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated July 8, 2023)
This tip applies to Word 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, 2021, and Word in Microsoft 365


1

There are times that I need to know how often I've used a particular word in a document, or even in a part of a document. The Word Count tool doesn't allow you to limit a count to a specific selection of text, but there is a neat little workaround you can do.

Before getting to the workaround, let me get out of the way what some may see as the obvious approach: Using the Navigation pane that is displayed when you press Ctrl+F. This can be a viable approach to counting the occurrences of a word in an entire document—just press Ctrl+F and enter the word you want. Word displays the number of occurrences of that word. Easy peasy, right?

Not really. This approach doesn't work so great if you want to only count occurrences of the word within a selection of text. If you select the text to which you want your word count limited, then it won't work. For instance, before pressing Ctrl+F, select a paragraph or two. Now, when you press Ctrl+F, Word assumes you want to search for that paragraph or two, not within that paragraph or two. Type the word you want to find within the Navigation pane, and Word ignores the paragraph or two and shows a count for the entire document.

No, the Navigation pane is not the answer. The solution is the old tried-and-true method of using the advanced searching capabilities of Word. Follow these steps:

  1. Select the text you want included in the count if you only want to count in a particular area of your document. (You can select multiple, non-contiguous areas of text by holding down the Ctrl key as you make your selections with the mouse.)
  2. Press Ctrl+H. Word displays the Replace tab of the Find and Replace dialog box. (See Figure 1.)
  3. Figure 1. The Replace tab of the Find and Replace dialog box.

  4. In the Find What box, enter the word you want to count.
  5. In the Replace With box, enter the characters ^&. This instructs Word to replace what is found with what you searched. (In other words, you are replacing the found text with the same word.)
  6. If you are concerned about Word finding "false positives" in word variations—i.e., searching for "car" and finding "care, caring, and carbuncle"—then click the More button and select the Find Whole Words option.
  7. Click Replace All.

Word replaces all occurrences of the word with itself, so there really are no changes done to your document. However, a dialog box appears that indicates how many changes were performed; this is your word count.

If you are skittish about doing find and replace operations, make sure you save your document before using this workaround. Plus, you can make double-sure there were no changes made by simply pressing Ctrl+Z right after dismissing the Find and Replace dialog box.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (12038) applies to Microsoft Word 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, 2021, and Word in Microsoft 365. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Word here: Counting a Particular Word.

Author Bio

Allen Wyatt

With more than 50 non-fiction books and numerous magazine articles to his credit, Allen Wyatt is an internationally recognized author. He is president of Sharon Parq Associates, a computer and publishing services company. ...

MORE FROM ALLEN

Two Page Numbering Schemes in the Same Document

Word is great at numbering pages if you only need a single, consistent numbering scheme through the document. If you need ...

Discover More

Searching for Text that Does Not Have a Certain Format

You can easily use Find and Replace to find text that has a particular format to it. Most people don't know you can use ...

Discover More

Struggling with New Changes to Track Changes

In the latest versions of Microsoft 365, the company has introduced an entirely new way to deal with markup comments. ...

Discover More

Create Custom Apps with VBA! Discover how to extend the capabilities of Office 365 applications with VBA programming. Written in clear terms and understandable language, the book includes systematic tutorials and contains both intermediate and advanced content for experienced VB developers. Designed to be comprehensive, the book addresses not just one Office application, but the entire Office suite. Check out Mastering VBA for Microsoft Office 365 today!

More WordTips (ribbon)

Replacing and Renumbering

Word has a powerful find and replace capability that can help you perform quite a few changes to your documents. This tip ...

Discover More

Finding Missing Spaces before Numbers

If you want to insert a space between letters and digits in your document, you have a couple of tasks to perform. First, ...

Discover More

Highlighting Found Text

When searching for text, Word can helpfully highlight all instances of what is found. If you want that highlighting to be ...

Discover More
Subscribe

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in WordTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

View most recent newsletter.

Comments

If you would like to add an image to your comment (not an avatar, but an image to help in making the point of your comment), include the characters [{fig}] (all 7 characters, in the sequence shown) in your comment text. You’ll be prompted to upload your image when you submit the comment. Maximum image size is 6Mpixels. Images larger than 600px wide or 1000px tall will be reduced. Up to three images may be included in a comment. All images are subject to review. Commenting privileges may be curtailed if inappropriate images are posted.

What is three less than 4?

2023-07-09 16:58:25

Al

Doesn't the search feature from the navigation pane show the number of "hits" found?


This Site

Got a version of Word that uses the ribbon interface (Word 2007 or later)? This site is for you! If you use an earlier version of Word, visit our WordTips site focusing on the menu interface.

Videos
Subscribe

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in WordTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

(Your e-mail address is not shared with anyone, ever.)

View the most recent newsletter.