I recently needed to know the word count in a PowerPoint presentation. In my case, this was because I charge my clients by the word, in the main, and needed to know how much to charge someone for editing her PowerPoint text. But I’m sure it will be useful in other cases, too, for example if you’re a student with a word count target.
And it’s NOT obvious. Plus it’s different in Word 2007 and Word 2010, of course.
So, this is what you do …
How do I count the words in a PowerPoint 2007 presentation?
Open your document and click on the big Office button in the top left (1)
Click on Prepare (2) (like that’s obvious!) then Properties (3). This will give you some of the document properties in a bar along the top (these vary according to how you set up your document in the first place):
And because nothing ever shows you what you want immediately, you then need to click on Document Properties then choose Advanced Properties from the drop down. Then, finally, you get …
A lovely dialogue box with all the properties you could ever want, including the word count.
How do I count the words in a PowerPoint 2010 presentation?
And of course it’s a bit different in PowerPoint 2010 document, because they’ve got rid of the Office button and replaced it with a File tab.
So: open the document and click on the File tab to the left of the Home tab.
This will bring you up a screen where you can open previous documents, save as, etc. Click on Info on the left and your properties will come up on the extreme right.
But of course, yet again, the thing you want to see isn’t immediately visible. Go right to the bottom of the screen and click Show All Properties.
And there’s your word count.
Please note, these hints work with versions of Microsoft Powerpoint 2007 and 2010, for PC. Mac compatible versions should have similar options. Always save a copy of your document before manipulating it. I bear no responsibility for any pickles you might get yourself into!
Find all the short cuts here …
