WD97: Word Count for Comments Number Incorrect

• Microsoft Word 97 for Windows

SYMPTOMS

When you use the Visual Basic for Applications StoryRanges collection to return a word count for comments, as in the following example

   x = ActiveDocument.StoryRanges(wdCommentsStory).Words.Count

For example, if the author name for a comment is two words long and the comment contains four words, the total word count returned is 6 (instead of 4 as expected).

CAUSE

The number of words returned includes the names of the commenting authors.

In addition, this count is cumulative. That is, if there are two comments in a document, the number of words in the comment author's name will be counted for each comment. For example, if each comment contains 4 words and John Doe is the author of both comments, the total word count returned is 12 instead of 8 as expected.

WORKAROUND

The following example will return the number of words found in all comments in a document, but will exclude the number of words in the comment author's name:

   Sub CountWordsInAllComments()
      Dim oComment As Object
      Dim iWordCount As Long
      For Each oComment In ActiveDocument.Comments
         iWordCount = iWordCount + oComment.Range.Words.Count
      Next
      MsgBox iWordCount
   End Sub