Can i word count without Microsoft Word?

December 22, 2004 10:40 AM

Does anyone know of an application that does word counts for Microsoft Word files without actually having to open up Word? I'm thinking of a handy right-click menu in Windows Explorer for example that also allows you to select multiple files and get a total word count. Many thanks in advance.
posted by jonathanbell to Computers & Internet (6 answers total)

Simplest way: File > Properties > Statistics (scroll halfway down)
posted by cillit bang at 10:48 AM on December 22, 2004

Or, to do it without going into Word (as the question asked): Right Click > Properties > Summary > Advanced. Of course you can only get an answer for one file at a time.

There's a Python Cookbook entry that explains how to work with Word from Python. It would actually start Word, but you would be able to do multiple files at once.
posted by grouse at 11:35 AM on December 22, 2004

That WAS without going into Word. Try it in Explorer.
posted by krisjohn at 4:11 PM on December 22, 2004

There's a utility called antiword which spits out the text of a word doc. Pipe the output into any word counting utility, and you'd have the job done.

The next question becomes -- how do you get something into the "right click" menu of a given type of file. I know this can be done, because all the images on my machine say "Edit with Fireworks", and I can also right click on a group of files and have them bundled into an archive using StuffIt. Anyone know how this part is accomplished?
posted by weston at 7:24 PM on December 22, 2004

weston: in Explorer, Tools->Options->File Types->select extension->Advanced. It's all there.
posted by neckro23 at 10:14 PM on December 22, 2004

krisjohn: OK, I'm in Explorer. File... Properties... Where's "Statistics?" Oh that's right, they aren't there because those instructions are for how to do it in Word, not in Explorer.
posted by grouse at 8:51 AM on December 25, 2004