Word count function in PowerPoint - True or False? Thread poster: Eivind Lilleskjaeret
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Dear all!
Under File - Properties - Statistics in PowerPoint there is among other things a word count. Does anybody have any experience with this function? How does it work? Is it accurate even when it comes to text embedded in boxes? I have only tried this function once, and the result was baffling. My manual word count was 1208. The one under Properties in MY version of PP (Office 2000, English) said 1274. My colleague, however, who uses a Swedish language version, clocks ... See more Dear all!
Under File - Properties - Statistics in PowerPoint there is among other things a word count. Does anybody have any experience with this function? How does it work? Is it accurate even when it comes to text embedded in boxes? I have only tried this function once, and the result was baffling. My manual word count was 1208. The one under Properties in MY version of PP (Office 2000, English) said 1274. My colleague, however, who uses a Swedish language version, clocks up an impressive 1443!
I look forward to your comments.
Kind regards,
Eivind ▲ Collapse
| | | | | PowerPoint word count | Mar 18, 2002 |
Hi Eivind,
Yes, I\'ve used the word count in PPT a couple of times, and the total I get matches my manual word count. I\'ve got the English version.
I didn\'t have any charts in the file, though, so perhaps it is the text incorporated in the charts that is not counted.
Daphne
| | | | John Kinory (X)
Local time: 02:30
English to Hebrew
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Quote:
On 2002-03-18 20:34, fidotext wrote:
Under File - Properties - Statistics in PowerPoint there is among other things a word count. Does anybody have any experience with this function? How does it work? Is it accurate even when it comes to text embedded in boxes?
My experience is that it ignores text embedded in boxes. One way around this, as far as charging is concerned, is to have a fla... See more Quote:
On 2002-03-18 20:34, fidotext wrote:
Under File - Properties - Statistics in PowerPoint there is among other things a word count. Does anybody have any experience with this function? How does it work? Is it accurate even when it comes to text embedded in boxes?
My experience is that it ignores text embedded in boxes. One way around this, as far as charging is concerned, is to have a flat rate per slide. Otherwise you have the **** job of counting manually.
Having said that, problems of this nature are not restricted to PP. I am translating (in Word) a long academic text, with many diagrams. Text embedded in the boxes is ignored by the wordcount function. I am only glad that I am aware of this - and will probably have to convince the client when invoicing time arrives.
[addsig] ▲ Collapse
| | | | Werner George Patels, M.A., C.Tran.(ATIO) (X)
Local time: 21:30
German to English
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| Export the PP file to SDLX or DéjàVu | Mar 19, 2002 |
This way, you will probably get a more reliable word count (because both SDLX and DV will capture words contained in text boxes).
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Nikki Graham 
United Kingdom
Local time: 02:30
Spanish to English
| Problems with PP | Mar 19, 2002 |
1. It often doesn\'t count the words in some boxes. You can check this by going to statistics, getting the count, deleting a word, and seeing if it has noticed that there\'s one word less. I always add on the words not counted automatically in both PP and Word and nobody has ever complained about this.
2. I have PP 1997. One of the agencies I work for has 2000. The word count of 2000 is always substantially lower than the one in 1997. So we both copy into Word, and still never get the ... See more 1. It often doesn\'t count the words in some boxes. You can check this by going to statistics, getting the count, deleting a word, and seeing if it has noticed that there\'s one word less. I always add on the words not counted automatically in both PP and Word and nobody has ever complained about this.
2. I have PP 1997. One of the agencies I work for has 2000. The word count of 2000 is always substantially lower than the one in 1997. So we both copy into Word, and still never get the same count. There are never any problems with those agencies that have the same version as me, but once the difference was 1,000 words and I felt rather cheated when I was paid less.
Does anyone know why this happens? Which version is more reliable? How to get the correct count (I don\'t have the software Werner suggested) Or perhaps I should just avoid all the hassle and not do PP translations for this agency!!
[ This Message was edited by: on 2002-03-19 08:38 ] ▲ Collapse
| | | | | A workaround: ->pdf->rtf->word | Mar 19, 2002 |
Thanks for your advice so far. I just wanted to air a suggestion I received from elsewhere: 1) Make a pdf-file of the ppt-doc, 2) Export the pdf as rtf, 3)Open the rtf in Word and count.
I do not know if/how well this works with text boxes and such. My experiment failed when I couldn\'t find the Export to rtf-function in my version of Acrobat (4.0) -- is it a new feature?
All the best,
Eivind
| | | | Werner George Patels, M.A., C.Tran.(ATIO) (X)
Local time: 21:30
German to English
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| You'll need Acrobat 5.0 | Mar 19, 2002 |
Quote:
On 2002-03-19 09:07, fidotext wrote:
Thanks for your advice so far. I just wanted to air a suggestion I received from elsewhere: 1) Make a pdf-file of the ppt-doc, 2) Export the pdf as rtf, 3)Open the rtf in Word and count.
I do not know if/how well this works with text boxes and such. My experiment failed when I couldn\'t find the Export to rtf-function in my version of Acrobat (4.0) -- is it a new feature?
... See more Quote:
On 2002-03-19 09:07, fidotext wrote:
Thanks for your advice so far. I just wanted to air a suggestion I received from elsewhere: 1) Make a pdf-file of the ppt-doc, 2) Export the pdf as rtf, 3)Open the rtf in Word and count.
I do not know if/how well this works with text boxes and such. My experiment failed when I couldn\'t find the Export to rtf-function in my version of Acrobat (4.0) -- is it a new feature?
All the best,
Eivind
You\'ll need 5.0 to do that, but it sounds \"insane\"  - it would be easier to export the PP file into SDLX, for example. ▲ Collapse
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[ This Message was edited by: on 2002-05-29 11:13 ]
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Hi Eivind,
I just tried your suggestion and, instead of an 'Export' function in Acrobat 6.0, I saw only 'Save as text,' so I did and then opened that text file in Word. The word count I got, however, was about 1000 words fewer than the 'Statistics' feature in PowerPoint gave me, so, obviously, I'm going to go with the PowerPoint count!
This was a good test, however, and gives me some reassurance that PowerPoint is not lopping too much off its word count.
St... See more Hi Eivind,
I just tried your suggestion and, instead of an 'Export' function in Acrobat 6.0, I saw only 'Save as text,' so I did and then opened that text file in Word. The word count I got, however, was about 1000 words fewer than the 'Statistics' feature in PowerPoint gave me, so, obviously, I'm going to go with the PowerPoint count!
This was a good test, however, and gives me some reassurance that PowerPoint is not lopping too much off its word count.
Stephanie
[Edited at 2005-04-01 16:52] ▲ Collapse
| | | | | Try the "CountAnything" tool from Ryan Ginstrom... | Dec 17, 2014 |
Ryan Ginstrom offers a great little tool called "CountAnything" on his website that counts words in textboxes and other objects...
http://ginstrom.com/CountAnything/
FYI
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