How to Check Word Count In WordPad

WordPad is a basic text editor that is a bit more sophisticated than Notepad, but it’s an amazing tool if you need the bare minimum. It’s completely free, unlike Microsoft Office, and it comes preinstalled in all Windows OS versions.

But being so simple means it lacks some useful functions other text editors have. Among them are the word counter and grammar-checking tools. That means you can’t check the word count in WordPad, but there are alternative ways and we will show them to you.

1. Use Microsoft Word

You can use Microsoft Word to help you count words written in WordPad. This is also the best and easiest way to do it. However, not everyone can access Microsoft Word because it’s part of the paid Microsoft Office suite.

If you have Microsoft Word installed on your laptop or PC, here’s how to use its word count feature to check the WordPad document.

1. Open Microsoft Word.
2. Create a Word document. Alternatively, right-click anywhere on your desktop, go to New, and select Microsoft Word Document. This way, you’ll open Word with a prepared new document to work in.

Now copy and paste your text from WordPad to the new Microsoft Word document you created. Here’s how you can do it:

1. Open the WordPad document you want to copy.
2. Select the entire text by pressing CTRL + A on your keyboard. This will automatically select the whole document.
3. To copy the selected text press CTRL + C on your keyboard or right-click and choose copy from the pop-up menu.

4. To paste it, click your mouse anywhere in the blank word document you previously opened, and press CTRL + V on your keyboard. You can also right-click on the empty word document and select Paste.

At the bottom of the Word document, you should be able to see the document’s total word count.

If you don’t have Microsoft Word installed on your PC, you can use Microsoft Word 365 Online to check the word count of your document by using the same steps above.

2. Use Google Docs

Google Docs is an alternative to Microsoft Word that can help you check the WordPad word count. You can log in to Google Docs with your Google account.

1. Create a new blank document.
2. Copy and paste your WordPad document text using the methods described above.
3. In Google Docs, go to Tools and then select Word Count from the drop-down menu.

4. A dialog box will open displaying the number of words in your document. You can also check how many characters are there, with or without spaces.

If you want to continue typing and editing your document in Google Docs, you can turn on the Display word count while typing option in the same dialog box.

Now you’ll see the live word count in the bottom left corner of your screen while typing. Clicking the downward arrow next to the word count will display other word count tool options.

3. Online Word Counters

There are other online tools that you can use to check the word count of your WordPad document. Some of them are even dedicated to counting words. The simplest ones are WordCounter.net and Word Counter Tool.

These online tools work on the same principle. Visit the website, copy and paste your WordPad document text, and click the submit button if needed. The tools will then automatically count the words and display their number.

Some of these online tools have a neat feature of counting how many times you used each word throughout your document. It’ll also display that info in percentages.

4. Use Free Office Alternatives

If you need to write documents, letters, or assignments regularly, you’ll need a handy word count tool. With WordPad, you must constantly copy and paste the text to check the word count, and Microsoft Office can be costly, especially if you only need basic text editing. So check out Office alternatives and open-source text editors like LibreOffice and Apache OpenOffice.

Checking your word count in WordPad can be time-consuming for complex projects, so start using a more professional tool. WordPad isn’t meant to replace word processors like MS Word and Google Docs.