Word For Windows Reports Incorrect Number of Words in Document

• Microsoft Word for Windows, versions 2.0, 2.0a, 2.0a-CD, 2.0b, 2.0c, 6.0, 6.0a, 6.0c

SUMMARY

The # of Words value in the Document Statistics dialog box is incorrect after you choose the Update button if your Word for Windows document contains more than 65,536 words. Before you choose the Update button for the first time in your document, Word lists an estimated word count value, which is correct, even if your document contains more than 65,536 words.

The updated # of Words value is incorrect because the function that updates the # of Words statistic is limited to 16 bits, which means that the largest number it can calculate is 2 to the 16th power, or 65,536. If your document contains more than 65,536 words, Word restarts the counter at one (1) the first time you choose the Update button in the Document Statistics dialog box. For example, if your document contains 65,537 words, the # of Words value is 1 after you choose the Update button; if your document contains 65,736 words, the updated # of Words value is 200, and so forth.

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in the versions of Microsoft Word for Windows listed above. This problem was corrected in Word version 7.0 for Windows 95.

MORE INFORMATION

To open the Document Statistics dialog box, choose Summary Info from the File menu and choose the Statistics button. If the # of Words label is unavailable (dimmed), the Update button has not yet been chosen in this document.

The updated # of Words value is accurate in documents that contain fewer than 65,537 words. To obtain an accurate word count in larger documents after you update the Document Statistics dialog box, you can create a WordBasic macro to count the words in your document. For information on such a macro, query on the following words in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

   count and text and selection and macro and winword