How do I get a word count for a PDF doc or for a selected passage?

[d0nna6]

How do I get a word count for a PDF doc or for a selected passage?

[Test Screen Name]

Select text, copy into Word, use Word's Properties.

[d0nna6]

That's the only way? Not so convenient with a long doc. Oh well. Thanks.

[try67]

It can be done within Acrobat, but it requires a script. And it's more complicated with a passage. Basically that can't be done directly. You'll need to first do something like highlight the text using the Highlight commenting tool before a script could count the number of words in it.

[Test Screen Name]

You could export to Word if it's many pages.

[d0nna6]

Thank you all--this is very helpful.

[Nachal_nik]

Does/can Adobe Reader have a feature that provides automatic word counts for documents? Translators need such numbers (actually, several metrics can be used, not just raw word count) as the primary basis for their fees.

[Test Screen Name]

I've never heard of translators being able to do their work successfully with PDFs alone, still less with Adobe Reader.

They are probably working in Word or FrameMaker, and these do have word counts.

If someone other than the translator needs a word count and has only the final PDF, perhaps the best option is to copy and paste to Word for counting metrics.

[Vell26982714m2b3]

Some translators unfortunately receive source documents in PDF in spite of protests to those customers.  At present I am looking at the PDF of a book of more than 250 pages and have no easy way to do a word count to confirm a quote for translation.  It frankly sucks to have to do a very messy copy/paste to another application just to do a word count. The addition of a simple word count tool for  Adobe Reader would be appreciated by many.

[NT000]

Try Foxit PDF reader (free version). It provides a pretty accurate word count for a pdf document.  It's a shame Adobe won't have this elementary function.

[Rebecca3648947427hu]

Few people have the time to be clumsily copying / pasting anything to anywhere in today's workplace!. Our work group is better to avoid Adobe PDF and keep things saved in MS Word until we are ready to publish the absolute final version.  This way we avoid blowing out the word limit for the Client, and having to retrospectively cull when it's over the word limit we are being paid for - time consuming and also unpaid re-editing. Could Adobe not look at this?

[Thom Parker]

You have described the correct workflow. PDF is a final deliverable format, and in this sense, Acrobat is a document finishing tool.  So yes, changes should only be made to the original document. Then it is converted to PDF. 

[Vell26982714m2b3]

If someone receives a job in PDF and needs to quote a job based on the word count of the document, how is that to be accomplished? The pre-PDF source is not available.

[Thom Parker]

Well then, you need a word count tool for Acrobat. Since you have Acrobat Pro, you can easily create a "Command" from the "Action Wizard" toolset. The JavaScript for this command has already been provided in this thread. 

Once the "Command" is created, it can be used over and over. In fact, it can be exported and loaded into Acrobat on another system. 

[Thom Parker]

Or you could just download and install the free word counter tool provided by @JR Boulay 

https://www.abracadabrapdf.net/utilitaires/utilities-in-english/abracadabratools_en/

Yay JR, Thanks!!

[Vell26982714m2b3]

Client has Reader, no Pro. Office rules prohibit use of malware/freeware. Needs a word count using Reader.

[JR Boulay]

Vell26982714m2b3 If you'd been curious enough to click on the link provided by Thom, you'd have noticed that this plugin also works with Reader.
And if you're not allowed to use freeware, that's no problem - I can sell it to you. 😉

[David Cardillo, PRH]

link is now dead (404)

[katek89181044]

I just had this issue in a PDF...

I actually hit "select all" (control A), "copy" (control C), then opened a Word doc.

In Word doc, I hit "paste" (control v)

In Word doc, under "review" hit "word count"

hope this helps

[cordeliab63942017]

Good answer presuming you have Word.

[Test Screen Name]

Never heard of a translator who didn't have Word.

[Vell26982714m2b3]

There are many translators who don't use MS Word.

[David Cardillo, PRH]

does anyone know of a tool that doesn't cost $15/month/user?

yes, they have a free online tool, but if I can copy/paste into their web form, I can paste into Word and get the same count

[93filmsandmedia]

Does/can Adobe Reader have a feature that provides automatic word counts for documents? Translators need such numbers (actually, several metrics can be used, not just raw word count) as the primary basis for their fees.

By @Nachal_nik

WHY WOULD ADOBE NOT ICLUDE SOMETHING SO BASIC?   They've been failing a lot lately with me.  There's no Premier Rush for android.  You can't make AR filters for facebook and instagram with their Aero.  You can't make multiple copies of your work in Spark open at the same time, etc etc etc etc .   What's going on adobe?

[donnag29834815]

I'd like to know how to get a word count on a PDF document? Also, how do I highlight an entire file (so I can copy it onto Word which gives me a word count) without highlighting the first line and scrolling down line by line. Email is:(Email Address removed by Moderator).