Indesign CS6 Total Document Word Count... No?

[evanexempt]

I left the following comment on a Youtube tutorial explaining how to execute a word count query for an Indesign document ASSUMING your article layout uses a single box of text:

What if an article uses a creative layout with multiple text-boxes? Are you supposed to get out your pocket calculator and add them up one-by-one?

I work for a magazine that publishes short, submission-style testimonials bridged together with staff-generated narrative copy; some of our articles use six or more discreet text-boxes. You REALLY MEAN TO TELL ME that there is NO WAY to yield a TOTAL DOCUMENT WORD COUNT using what is SUPPOSED TO BE the MOST ADVANCED page layout application ON EARTH??

Pardon my exasperation in the above comment, but....Seriously?  

I need someone knowledgeable to please look me in the eyes and tell me, "This is true", before I am going to be able to let myself believe it.

Thank you.

- Exasperated Journalist Slag

[Joel Cherney]

Well, if you're going to use a script to exclude the pasteboard, you may as well use a script to count the words too, right?  That's part of the beauty of Eugene's suggestion - it addresses the OP's initial question, and does not require using the scripting interface.

Which brings the thread neatly back to evanexempt's original exasperation: the thing that to my mind makes InDesign the "most advanced page layout application on Earth" is its extensibility via the scripting interface. But if you don't know any scripting languages, or how to install or modify the scripts that the incredibly helpful InDesign community likes to give away, then there is no obvious way to count all the words in a document with a minimum of effort. Unless you're Eugene, it seems.

[Eugene Tyson]

My solution doesn't come without certain caveats!

I use a different style for Table Text called "Table Body" "Table Heading" "Table Bullet"

These are children of the "Body" and "Heading" and "Bullet" and "Quotes" and "Pull Quotes" and a plethora of other styles.

And "Heading" and "Bullet" are Children of the "Body" etc.

So my Find would find just "Body" not it's children, so only paragraphs of text not within a table would be found.

However, it's a simplistic way to get a Word Count. And if you're not bothered about Headings, Tables or Bullets you can do a full search - or search for a specific style.

[Eugene Tyson]

I mixed up the Styles above in their relation to each other - but I think you know what I mean