Counting Document Lines

Word provides a tool you can use to return simple statistics about your document. One of the statistics it can provide is the number of lines in your document. In order to see how many lines there are in your document, choose Word Count from the Tools menu. After a short delay (depending on the size of your document and the speed of your computer), Word displays the Word Count dialog box. (Click here to see a related figure.)

One of the statistics provided in the Word Count dialog box is Lines. The value returned by Word depends on several things. First, it obviously depends on the formatting of your document. For instance, if you decrease the point size of text within your document, that can affect the line count. Second, the printer driver you are using can affect the number of lines in your document. In both instances, the differences are due to the different ways in which Word "flows" your text in the document. When the point size is smaller, Word can fit more characters on each given line, thereby reducing the overall number of lines required to present the same information. Likewise, using a different printer driver could result in a slightly different rendering of a font. For instance, the same font may appear more "compressed" on one printer than on another. This, again, means different amounts of information per line and a potentially different line count.

Finally, hidden text can affect the line count returned in the Word Count dialog box. If you have Hidden Text turned off in the Print tab of the Options dialog box, Word doesn't count hidden text in the line count. If you want it to be considered, make sure the Hidden Text check box is selected in the Print tab of the Options dialog box.