Forum Discussion
Changing word and page count on Windows 10
Hi, I have googled this question but didn't find a clear answer
Does it really matter if word/page counts change in a large word document?
I have been using editor on a document a couple of hundred pages long.
The word count has been giving me an idea of how much I have removed from the document as I work.
I didnt close down the document, and this morning when I came back to it, instead of roughly 102800 words and 210 pages, it showed around 104000 words and 212 pages which is where I started at.
I saved a copy, shut down and reopened the document and it still showed the same counts.
I scanned the document for changes I had made and they appear to be all there, however now editor is indicating more changes required to areas it previously didnt (editor corrections and refinements are completely different)
Is this indicating just a delayed updating problem with the document, because I didn't shut it down for an extended period, or is it something more serious?
4 Replies
You can view word and page count in Word’s status bar at the bottom. If it’s missing, right-click the bar and enable Word Count.
Hi soumdg663,
What you’re seeing is likely Word recalculating counts after an extended session. Word’s word and page counts can temporarily lag or get slightly out of sync, especially in very large documents, when:
- You leave the document open for long periods.
- Track Changes or Editor suggestions are active.
- Hidden elements (like footnotes, tracked changes, or comments) affect counts.
Since your actual content hasn’t changed, and saving/reopening shows the same counts, this is not a serious issue—just Word updating its internal statistics. For future reference, the Status Bar at the bottom is the most reliable place to monitor live word/page counts.
Look at the Status Bar: The easiest place to see this is the Status Bar at the very bottom of the Word window.
It will typically show something like Page: 1 of 5 | Words: 245.
If you don't see the word count, right-click on the Status Bar and make sure Word Count is checked.
Word counts are sometimes estimates based on the current view and can fluctuate due to background processes, especially in very large documents.
