Count words and characters
Document ▸ Word count… shows how much text the document holds. In the app: Help ▸ Show me.
Check the count
- Open the document and go to the page you are interested in.
- Choose Document ▸ Word count….
- Read the table, then close the dialog.
The dialog has two columns: Document (with its page count) and the current page, for example "Page 3".
| Row | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Words | Number of words |
| Characters (with spaces) | All characters, including spaces |
| Characters (no spaces) | Characters excluding spaces |
Note
The count uses the text layer of the PDF. Scanned pages without text count as empty, and each Chinese or Japanese character counts as one word.
Note
It counts the whole document and the current page only. Selected text is not counted separately.
Good to know
- The item is available whenever a document is open, including encrypted (read-only) ones, because it changes nothing.
- The count is calculated each time you open the dialog.
- To count a different page, close the dialog, move to that page and open it again.
For other items in the Document menu, such as headers and watermarks, see Headers, footers and page numbers and Watermark and background. Information about the file itself is in Document properties.