WD2000: Word Count Appears Inaccurate Using VBA Words Property

ID: Q212705

The information in this article applies to:

Microsoft Word 2000

SYMPTOMS

When you use the Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications Words property to return a word count, the number of words returned appears to be inaccurate.

CAUSE

Microsoft provides programming examples for illustration only, without warranty either expressed or implied, including, but not limited to, the implied warranties of merchantability and/or fitness for a particular purpose. This article assumes that you are familiar with the programming language being demonstrated and the tools used to create and debug procedures. Microsoft support professionals can help explain the functionality of a particular procedure, but they will not modify these examples to provide added functionality or construct procedures to meet your specific needs. If you have limited programming experience, you may want to contact a Microsoft Certified Solution Provider or the Microsoft fee-based consulting line at (800) 936-5200. For more information about Microsoft Certified Solution Providers, please see the following page on the World Wide Web:

http://www.microsoft.com/mcsp/

For more information about the support options available from Microsoft, please see the following page on the World Wide Web:

http://www.microsoft.com/support/supportnet/overview/overview.asp

The Words property returns a collection that represents all the words in a range, selection, or document. The collection includes all punctuation and paragraph marks in the selection or the document.
For example, if you attempt to determine the word count of the following three lines of text using the Words property, the result is 24 words:


Sub GetWords()
   MsgBox ActiveDocument.Words.Count
End Sub

This is x number of words.
This is x number of words.
This is x number of words.

WORKAROUND

To return only the number of words in a document or a range, excluding paragraph marks and punctuation, use the ComputeStatistics method instead of the Words property.

The ComputeStatistics method returns a word count that does not include paragraph marks or punctuation. Using the sample text from the "Cause" section, the following code using the ComputeStatistics method returns a count of 18 words.


Sub GetWords()
   MsgBox ActiveDocument.Range.ComputeStatistics(wdStatisticWords)
End Sub

For more information about ComputeStatistics, in the Visual Basic Editor, click Microsoft Visual Basic Help on the Help menu, type statistics in the Office Assistant or the Answer Wizard, and then click Search to view the topic.

MORE INFORMATION

For more information about using the sample code in this article, click the article number below to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

Q212536 OFF2000: How to Run Sample Code from Knowledge Base Articles

REFERENCES

For additional information about getting help with Visual Basic for Applications, click the article number below to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

Q226118 OFF2000: Programming Resources for Visual Basic for Applications

Additional query words: vb vba vbe

Keywords : kbmacro kbusage kbdta kbdtacode kbwordvba word97 wd2000
Version : WINDOWS:2000
Platform : WINDOWS
Issue type : kbprb