Word Count for PowerPoint

PowerPoint's missing word and character count feature.

Select some text, a text box, a table or a group, and see its words and characters as you go, counted the same way Microsoft Word counts them.

Install the add-in How it counts

For PowerPoint on Mac, Windows and the web.

What it counts

Choose Word Count on the Home tab. A pane opens on the right, and the counts update by themselves whenever you change the selection.

  • Highlighted text

    Just the text you've highlighted, inside a box or a table cell.

  • Text boxes and placeholders

    All of their text. Select several and they're added together, with a count for each one.

  • Tables

    Every cell, with merged cells counted once, or just the cells you select.

  • Groups

    Every text box and table inside a group, however deeply it's grouped.

Counted the way Word counts

The rules match Microsoft Word's Word Count, so you get the same numbers Word would give for the same text.

Words

Words are separated by spaces. A hyphenated word, a web address or a number such as 3.14 is one word. An en or em dash between words splits them. In Chinese and Japanese, each character counts as a word.

  • well-known 1 word
  • before—after 2 words
  • 3.14 1 word

Characters (no spaces)

Letters, numbers, punctuation and symbols. Most emoji count as one character. Emoji with a skin tone, flags and combined emoji (such as families) count as two or more, as they do in Word.

Characters (with spaces)

The same, plus spaces, tabs and line breaks (Shift+Enter, or Enter in a slide title). Paragraph breaks aren't counted.

Install Word Count

Word Count needs a current version of PowerPoint: 16.105 or later on Mac, Version 2601 or later on Windows, or PowerPoint on the web.

Download the add-in file

A small file called word-count-manifest.xml. You'll use it in the steps below.

For a whole organisation Recommended

A Microsoft 365 administrator can install it for everyone at once. In the Microsoft 365 admin center, go to Settings › Integrated apps › Upload custom apps, choose Office Add-in, and upload the file or paste this page's address with help.html replaced by word-count-manifest.xml. It appears on the Home tab within a day, on Mac, Windows and the web.

On a Mac

  1. Quit PowerPoint.
  2. In Finder, choose Go › Go to Folder…, paste ~/Library/Containers/com.microsoft.Powerpoint/Data/Documents/wef and press Return. If Finder can't find it, go to ~/Library/Containers/com.microsoft.Powerpoint/Data/Documents instead and create a folder named wef there.
  3. Copy the downloaded word-count-manifest.xml into that folder. Leave anything else in the folder alone.
  4. Open PowerPoint and a presentation, choose Home › Add-ins, and pick Word Count.

On Windows

  1. In PowerPoint, choose Home › Add-ins › More Add-ins.
  2. Open the My Add-ins tab, choose Manage My Add-ins › Upload My Add-in, and pick the downloaded file.

In PowerPoint on the web

  1. Open a presentation and choose Home › Add-ins › More Settings (in some versions, Insert › Add-ins › My Add-ins).
  2. Choose Upload My Add-in and pick the downloaded file. Your browser remembers it, so you'll need to do this again in a different browser or after clearing your browsing data.

Good to know

  • Charts, SmartArt and embedded objects These can't be counted, because PowerPoint doesn't let add-ins read their text. The pane tells you when one has been left out.
  • Slide thumbnails hidden If the slide thumbnails are hidden, PowerPoint may not report highlighted text, and the whole box is counted instead.
  • Slide master and layouts PowerPoint doesn't report selections there, so they can't be counted.
  • Typing in PowerPoint on the web The counts update when you change the selection, not while you type. Choose Refresh after editing. On Mac and Windows they catch up within a couple of seconds.
  • Automatic bullets and numbering These aren't counted. Word counts them in documents, so a Word count of the same bulleted text can be slightly higher.

Troubleshooting

  • The numbers look stuck Choose Refresh at the bottom of the pane.
  • The pane looks out of date after an update On a Mac, open the small menu at the top of the pane and choose Clear Web Cache, then reopen the pane.
  • Word Count doesn't appear, or says "Please update PowerPoint" Check your version (Mac: PowerPoint › About PowerPoint; Windows: File › Account › About PowerPoint). You need 16.105 or later on Mac, or Version 2601 or later on Windows. Update (Mac: Help › Check for Updates; Windows: File › Account › Update Options › Update Now), then quit and reopen PowerPoint. One-time-purchase Office (2021, 2024, LTSC) can't run Word Count; use PowerPoint on the web instead.