Linda wonders if there is a way to count the number of words that are within the comments (and only the comments) in a document.
The easiest way to accomplish this task is to use a macro. This is because Word makes available to VBA a Comments collection which includes all of the comments in the document. All you need to do is to step through each comment and then look at the Count property for the Words collection for the comment, in this manner:
Sub CommentWordCount1() Dim c As Comment Dim lWords As Long Dim sMsg As String For Each c In ActiveDocument.Comments lWords = lWords + c.Range.Words.Count Next c sMsg = "There are " & ActiveDocument.Comments.Count sMsg = sMsg & " comments in the document. & vbCrLf & vbCrLf sMsg = sMsg & "Word count: " & lWords MsgBox sMsg End Sub
If you prefer, you could also use the ComputeStatistics method to come up with the word counts, like this:
Sub CommentWordCount2() Dim c As Comment Dim lWords As Long Dim sMsg As String For Each c In ActiveDocument.Comments lWords = lWords + c.Range.ComputeStatistics(wdStatisticWords) Next c sMsg = "There are " & ActiveDocument.Comments.Count sMsg = sMsg & " comments in the document. & vbCrLf & vbCrLf sMsg = sMsg & "Word count: " & lWords MsgBox sMsg End Sub
When you compare the results from the two macros, you may notice a difference in word counts. This is because of the way that the CompuStatistics method treats punctuation when doing its calculations. You'll want to compare the results and, based on the characteristics of the information in your comments, choose the approach that best suits your needs.
Note:
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