Hi there.

I am creating a template document for my students to use when writing assessments.

My first page is a cover page. I then have a section break and the students will then begin their assessment on the 2nd page.

Part of their instructions is to include a word count. I initially used the NUMWORDS field, but forgot that it would count all words in the document.

I believe there is a way of counting only the words in a specific section and then return the value for that. I have found a number of online tutorials with code included, but due to my very limited knowledge of VBA and macros, I cannot get it to work properly.



I would like to insert the section 2 word count into a table on the cover page.

Is anyone able to assist me, with perhaps a simple idiots guide that I can work from?

Word's NUMWORDS field has no means of defining a range for the count. Indeed, from the first refresh onwards, it includes itself in the count. What you can do is use a formula field coded along the lines of:
{={NUMWORDS}-n}
where n is the count of words on your cover page. To create such a field, press Ctrl-F9 twice to create a nested pair of field braces (i.e. {{}}), then add the text to provide the above construction, replacing the 'n' with the cover page word count +1. Press F9 to update when you're done.

__________________
Cheers,
Paul Edstein
[Fmr MS MVP - Word]