How to check character count in Microsoft Word?

For instance, if I have some text drafted in Microsoft Word and I’m curious about the exact character count—including all those pesky spaces—I'd love to know how to find that out quickly.

I can't speak for other versions, but with Microsoft Word 2013, if you just click on the word count in the status bar, a little window pops up with all sorts of data, including exactly what you're looking for.

ironcyclist58 said:I can't speak for every single version out there, but in Microsoft Word 2013, if you just click on the word count in the status bar, a little window pops up with all sorts of stats—including exactly what you're looking for.

That feature has been around for ages. It’s in the older versions too. Much older. I couldn't tell you the exact year they rolled it out, but it's been a staple for a long time.
And it's definitely still there in the newer versions. 🙂

I’m just guessing here, but I'll leave room for the possibility that things don't play out quite the same way, so consider this my disclaimer. 😬

I seem to have neglected to mention that I am still working with Microsoft Word 2003, and unfortunately, nothing else seems to be helping me here.
It simply displays the character count for each individual line rather than providing a grand total.
For instance, if I move my cursor to the first line right after the sixth character, it shows Lin 1 Col 6.
Then, when I move down to the second line—say, after the tenth character—it displays Lin 2 Col 10.
Is there any way at all that I could highlight the entire body of text and use some sort of tool within Microsoft Word to extract the total count?

Have you tried clicking—or maybe even double-clicking—on that specific spot where that info is displayed?

Just type "Microsoft Word 2003 character count" into Google and you'll have your answer in seconds.

Plus, there are plenty of sites that do this, so you don't even need to own Microsoft Word. Just plug a few words into Google🙂 and you're set.

Carl Fowler said:For instance, I’ve got some text written in Word and I need to figure out the total character count, spaces included.

Check under the Tools menu --> Word count.
(I don't have Microsoft Word 2003 on hand right now, so I can't double-check)