Field codes are a great way to keep track of document counts in Microsoft Word. By using field codes, you can easily see how many documents are in a folder, how many pages are in a document, and how many words are in a document. To create field codes, open Microsoft Word and select the File tab. Click the Options button and then click the Advanced tab. Under Field Codes, click the New button. In the Field Code dialog box, type DOCUMENT_COUNT into the Name text box and then click OK. To use field codes to count documents, open a document that you want to count and select the File tab. Click the Options button and then click the Advanced tab. Under Field Codes, click the Use this code for… button and select DOCUMENT_COUNT from the list of options. In the Document Count dialog box that appears, type a value into each of the fields (for example, 1). When you’re finished counting documents, close Microsoft Word by clicking OK in both dialog boxes. By using field codes to keep track of document counts, you’ll be able to quickly see how many documents are in a folder and how many pages are in a document. You’ll also be able to see how many words are in a document ..
Insert Word Count
You can use a field code to enter the current word count in a document, and it will continue to update as you add more to the document. To enter a Word count, make sure you have the cursor where you want the count to appear.
Then click the Insert tab on the Ribbon.
Then in the Text group click on Quick Parts then Field.
Now in the Field dialog box browse through the available fields you can add to your document. There are quite a few including Table of Contents, Bibliography, Time & Date…etc. Starting with a simple word count, will get you started with the basics and allow you to explore more field codes in the future.
For this tutorial we’re going to insert a word count so under Field Names scroll down and select NumWords…
Now you can choose the field properties and numeric format… but to keep it simple we will just go with the defaults.
So here we can see that we have a word count of 1,232. Keep in mind you can put this anywhere in your document that you want. Here we put it under the title for instance because our Editor wants to know how many words are included. Then you can take it out easily with a highlight and delete.
If you want to update the field, just go ahead and enter in your additional text and/ or finish off your document. Then you can update it easily by doing a right-click the number field and select update field.
Here we added a couple more paragraphs and it updates accordingly.
In the future we’ll be taking a closer look at more creative ways for using Field Codes in your documents. This will definitely get you started in using Field Codes in your documents in Word 2010.
What is your take? Do you or have you used Field Codes in MS Word in the past? Leave a comment and let us know tips and tricks you’ve used to create awesome documents.
