WD98: Word Count Appears Inaccurate

ID: Q183870

The information in this article applies to:

Microsoft Word 98 Macintosh Edition

SYMPTOMS

In Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications, when you use the Words property to return a word count, the number of words returned appears to be inaccurate.

CAUSE

The Words property returns a collection that represents all the words in a range, selection, or document. The collection includes all punctuation and paragraph marks in the selection or the document.

For example, if you attempt to determine the word count of the following three lines of text using the Words property, the result is 21 words:

   This is x number of words<return>
   This is x number of words<return>
   This is x number of words<return>

WORKAROUND

Microsoft provides programming examples for illustration only, without warranty either expressed or implied, including, but not limited to, the implied warranties of merchantability and/or fitness for a particular purpose. This article assumes that you are familiar with the programming language being demonstrated and the tools used to create and debug procedures. Microsoft support professionals can help explain the functionality of a particular procedure, but they will not modify these examples to provide added functionality or construct procedures to meet your specific needs. If you have limited programming experience, you may want to contact the Microsoft fee-based consulting line at (800) 936-5200. For more information about the support options available from Microsoft, please see the following page on the World Wide Web:

   http://www.microsoft.com/support/supportnet/refguide/

To return only the number of words in a document or a selection, exclusive of paragraph marks and punctuation, use the Dialogs object instead of the Words property.

The Dialogs object returns a word count that does not include paragraph marks or punctuation. Using the example from the "Cause" section, the Dialogs object returns a count of 18 words.

The following Visual Basic for Applications code shows the difference between using the Words property and the Dialogs object method to return a word count for a document.

   Sub CountWords()

      ' Retrieve the number of words including paragraph marks and
      ' punctuation using the Dialogs collection. This  returns the
      ' same result as if you used the Word Count command (Tools menu).
      Set wdDTWC = Dialogs(wdDialogToolsWordCount)
      wdDTWC.Execute
      dlgwordcount$ = wdDTWC.Words
      MsgBox "Word Count from Tools Word Count: " & dlgwordcount$

      ' Retrieve the number of words from the Words collection.
      selwordcount$ = ActiveDocument.Words.Count
      MsgBox "Word Count from Words Collection: " & selwordcount$

   End Sub

For more information about the Dialogs Object, from the Visual Basic Editor, click the Office Assistant, type "Dialogs," click Search, and then click to view "Dialogs Object."

NOTE: If the Assistant is hidden, click the Office Assistant button on the Standard toolbar. If the Assistant is not able to answer your query, please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

   ARTICLE-ID: Q176476
   TITLE     : OFF: Office Assistant Not Answering Visual Basic Questions

MORE INFORMATION

For additional information, please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

   ARTICLE-ID: Q181058
   TITLE     : OFF98: How to Run Sample Code from Knowledge Base Articles

REFERENCES

For more information about getting help with Visual Basic for Applications, please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

   ARTICLE-ID: Q163435
   TITLE     : VBA: Programming Resources for Visual Basic for
               Applications

Additional query words: wordcon vb vba vbe

Keywords          : kbdta kbdtacode OffVBA kbmacroexample macword98 
Platform          : MACINTOSH
Issue type        : kbprb

Last Reviewed: April 7, 1999