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This has been requested quite a few times by different people.
I’m sure it will come at some point in the future.
It’s probably more difficult to implement in something like Publisher as an AFPUB document is more complex than the average word processing document. E.g. Different ways of counting words in paragraphs formatted in different languages; Text frames that can be ‘switched off’; Do you count words in master page layers? Etc. etc. The list of potential complications just goes on an on.

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6 hours ago, GarryP said:

t’s probably more difficult to implement in something like Publisher as an AFPUB document is more complex than the average word processing document. E.g. Different ways of counting words in paragraphs formatted in different languages; Text frames that can be ‘switched off’; Do you count words in master page layers? Etc. etc. The list of potential complications just goes on an on.

Word count in selected text.

Word count in linked Text Frames (Story).

Word count in Document... I doubt anyone needs to count how many times the page number and various page headers are included. I can't see any easy way to get a collection of word counts from unlinked Master Page items excluded so this is probably a big programming job.

I would like the first two but I can live without it being implemented at all, mostly because I really don't see how it is of any real utility. I truly do not understand why people need this function.

 

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I have never mastered color management, period, so I cannot help with that.

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Also, along with things like page numbers, do you count:
* words in captions?
* words in call-outs?
* words in pull quotes?
* words in artistic text?
* words in footnotes (when we get them)?
* words in tables of contents?
* words in indices?
* words in tables?
* words in embedded documents?
* etc. etc.
Everyone will have their own preferences and giving people all of the options to define their own specific needs would probably make things very complicated.
Personally I don’t use word counts as I don’t have any need to count the words in my documents. I understand that some people have a need for such things – editors’ orders – but, in these cases, writing the text in a word processor first and then copying it into Publisher when it’s correct word-count-wise will probably be a better solution for them (with the right Styles set-up so pasting is easy).
If a Story Editor of some sort was implemented then I can imagine seeing a word count for the ‘story’ being edited may be useful but I can’t really see the point of seeing a word count for a whole document. Depending on what it counted it could be very misleading, and therefore fairly useless (if you’re not exactly sure what it’s counting then what use is the number?).

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On 12/22/2019 at 5:10 PM, Old Bruce said:

I truly do not understand why people need this function.

To calculate the price for the customer, maybe?

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On 12/22/2019 at 5:10 PM, Old Bruce said:

I truly do not understand why people need this function. 

Certain publishing media sites and print media magazines etc. have limited space for contents, articles, adverts, etc. Thus these often make specifications regarding the number of words, characters, etc. to use at all. Other usages might be for layout specific and such influencing settings.

 

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Of course, one problem with word counts is that words vary greatly in length, anything from "a" to "pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis".  So a character count (with and without spaces) can sometimes be useful.

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v_kyr: Your explanation, while totally sensible, doesn’t (to my mind) answer the question as it relates to Designer/Publisher. For example, when would someone use Designer/Publisher to create something that was then submitted for inclusion into another publication? And, in these circumstances, why would having a word count (or character count) of the contents of this be of any use? In other words, under which circumstances would having a word count in Designer/Publisher help someone? Or, to put it another way, if a word/character count is needed - for space/layout/etc. requirements - doesn’t that word/character count need to be done before the text is included in the Designer/Publisher document?

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  • 2 months later...
On 12/22/2019 at 5:10 PM, Old Bruce said:

I truly do not understand why people need this function.

One basic use case that I use InDesign's Info panel for, is knowing the number of lines. This is useful when setting up a typographic grid. Like a basic 2 by 2 grid. If you want it to line up and have an equal number of lines in each row. Like 59 (total lines) -1 (the interline space) / 2 (number of rows)...
59 -1 = 58
58 / 2 = 29

grid2.thumb.jpg.3acab30ec1c4414645b71de7126e3294.jpg

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On 12/31/2019 at 2:01 PM, GarryP said:

doesn’t that word/character count need to be done before the text is included in the Designer/Publisher document?

Why? I usually write text in DTP software, not in Word. I hate it.
BTW, character count can be useful to determine the price for the customer. For example, dividing the # of chars (without spaces) with 1800  tells me how typewriter pages* are in total inside document. then I multiple that value with my price, like:

typewriter pages x price = amout the customer has to pay

 

*) typewriter pages has 1800 chatracters in average. It is supposed that the page contains 28-30 rowa with 60-66 chars per row -- in average 1800 chars. On typewriter machine all the characters are equal size, but in word processor or DTP program the customer may enter smaller sized text to fake the size of a book to pay less for the pre-press.

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10 hours ago, Petar Petrenko said:

Why? I usually write text in DTP software, not in Word. I hate it.
BTW, character count can be useful to determine the price for the customer. For example, dividing the # of chars (without spaces) with 1800  tells me how typewriter pages* are in total inside document. then I multiple that value with my price, like:

typewriter pages x price = amout the customer has to pay

 

*) typewriter pages has 1800 chatracters in average. It is supposed that the page contains 28-30 rowa with 60-66 chars per row -- in average 1800 chars. On typewriter machine all the characters are equal size, but in word processor or DTP program the customer may enter smaller sized text to fake the size of a book to pay less for the pre-press.

I agree. Right now, I've been manually counting the words in my document that I create in Publisher, Designer, Photo & I rename the layer to number of words that I counted "402 words" for that individual layer for example.

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  • 1 year later...
On 12/22/2019 at 10:42 AM, GarryP said:

It’s probably more difficult to implement in something like Publisher as an AFPUB document is more complex than the average word processing document.

A simple count definitely is less demanding for APub than the already existing features of Find & Replace, Spell Check or Preflight, which both …
a.) notice the pure existence of items,
b.) have to inspect them for various aspects,
c.) give feedback to the user for each single item which gets filtered by current user settings before these tasks started,
d.) for the entire document, not selectively for certain pages or objects.

From this perspective your "more complex than the average word processing document"  doesn't seem to be relevant here.
 

On 12/31/2019 at 2:01 PM, GarryP said:

(...) doesn’t (to my mind) answer the question as it relates to Designer/Publisher. For example, when would someone use Designer/Publisher to create something that was then submitted for inclusion into another publication?

For designers, especially in full-service agencies (design, text, marketing, …) often a typical job requests layouts as first impressions of unfinished ideas. With filler text only but possibly with several layout variants. The input for this job is related to the ideas / concept / briefing of a team, including different departments, not designers only and often with the client included in the process. These filler text layouts are used for a first judgement + maybe the choice of a specific layout.

In the next steps this layout needs to get filled with real content. Now the layout becomes the briefing for others: the editor's writes text, a photographer takes pictures, etc. In this moment word count is helpful for both designer + editor, since it can ensure that the text will suit to the specific layout (its text areas, font sizes). Therefore a designer with a word counting app can tell the editor the required amount of text.

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