word and character count

[GeorgeB]

@serif

I realy miss the ability to see how many words or characters there are in a text box.

Maybe you could add this feature later on, it would help me immensly.

 

[Mikesath123]

Would also like this feature or something like this, for university projects its very useful

[hantoo]

I second this improvement. A word count per textboxes and for the overall document would be amazing!

[Old Bruce]

4 hours ago, hantoo said:

I second this improvement. A word count per textboxes and for the overall document would be amazing!

I don't know about "per textboxes" do you really want to see a list of 873 textbox word counts consisting of 1, 3, 4390, 4, 82, 12, 17... 

I may be too old school but the word count should be done before you start layout, before you submit the text for editing and proofreading. If all you want is a word count then copy the text and paste it into a text editor or word processor, that will more than likely be much faster. Having a word counter running in the background? "It slows the whole program down". Having to wait on a word counter to sort through each frame? "That is Too Slow, make it run in the background." We will never be happy with bloated software filled with esoteric edge case bugs. 

Lean code runs well and runs fast.

[fde101]

34 minutes ago, Old Bruce said:

a list of 873 textbox word counts

I would think it would be the "current" or selected text box - the one containing the insertion point.

[Alfred]

4 minutes ago, fde101 said:

I would think it would be the "current" or selected text box - the one containing the insertion point.

An overall word count for a set of linked text frames would generally be more useful.

[fde101]

True, if the text boxes are linked then it should cross the links to count those also.  Makes sense.

[Old Bruce]

I have to admit I am baffled by these requests. I truly do not see the utility of such a feature in a page/publication layout application.

[fde101]

I don't know that it is particularly essential either.  It has little if any value from my perspective, but several people seem to have requested it now, and it probably wouldn't be a big deal to add if someone can actually use it for some reason.  My comment above related more to how I would expect it to behave if it were in fact to be provided.

[hantoo]

1 hour ago, Old Bruce said:

I have to admit I am baffled by these requests. I truly do not see the utility of such a feature in a page/publication layout application.

So the reason it would be helpful is I tend to write up something, put it into publisher and then I might add some more text here and there. Thats why it would be helpful

[Paul Martin]

On 11/9/2018 at 7:12 PM, Old Bruce said:

I have to admit I am baffled by these requests. I truly do not see the utility of such a feature in a page/publication layout application.

You clearly have no idea how many users are not merely "layout artists" but writers, editors and proof-readers of their own work. And I hate to harp on about Serif PagePlus, an older but more usable programme, but it does this with ease. Why go backwards and snub 20 years of faithful customers?

[yorchvisual]

On 11/9/2018 at 1:12 PM, Old Bruce said:

I have to admit I am baffled by these requests. I truly do not see the utility of such a feature in a page/publication layout application.

It's important to take design decisions that impact in the user readability experience. A count character tools help to calculate a correct widht for text boxes. See this: https://baymard.com/blog/line-length-readability

[___]

Looking through these forums for any hope of a basic function a kid could code is depressing.

Here's someone with tasteful wording:

https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/89346-word-count-in-affinity-publisher/&do=findComment&comment=741949

[deebz]

Line count would also be useful for a given text box. As that is something key to devising solid typographic and picture grids.

Surely this could be incorporated into the UI (bottom status bar springs to mind)

To be brutally honest. I’d rather affinity concentrate really refining the basics now and making them rock solid rather than adding more bells and whistles. It’s already got the majority of the functionality of ID but it lacks some really basic things and some other basic functionality just doesn’t work. Not to mention some glaring UI/UX inconsistencies.

To quote Mies Van de Rohe

God is in the details

and

Less is More

[fde101]

4 hours ago, deebz said:

To be brutally honest. I’d rather affinity concentrate really refining the basics now and making them rock solid rather than adding more bells and whistles.

Some of us see word/line count as one of those "bells and whistles".

In light of that, there is no clear distinction between the "basics" and the "bells and whistles" when looking across the breadth of the user base of such broadly marketed applications.

[pethr]

In my opinion this is truly a basic feature, not bells and whistles. You need to know how many characters you have on a line (in selection), how many characters/lines are overflowing a box, etc. 

[Jowday]