Knowing the word count of your PowerPoint presentation can be useful for meeting assignment requirements or company presentation guidelines. PowerPoint 2013 makes it easy to get the word count for your entire presentation or for individual slides.
Find the Total Word Count
To see the total word count for your entire PowerPoint presentation:
- Click on the File tab
- Click on Info in the left sidebar
- At the bottom right, click on Show All Properties
- The total word count will display next to Words under Statistics
This will display the number of words in all slides and notes pages combined.
View Word Count by Slide
To see the individual word count for each slide:
- Click on the File tab
- Click Export
- Click on Create Handouts
- Select a page layout
- Click Create Handouts
This will open your presentation in Word, with each slide on its own page along with any notes. You can then view the word count for each slide separately.
Tip: If you don’t see the word count in Word, right-click the status bar at the bottom and make sure Word Count is checked.
Insert Word Count into Slides
You can also insert the total word count directly into a slide:
- Click where you want to insert the count
- On the Insert tab, click Quick Parts > Field
- Select NumWords from the list and click OK
To update the count, right-click on the number and choose Update Field.
Other Word Count Considerations
Keep the following in mind regarding word counts in PowerPoint:
- PowerPoint counts all text in slides, including text boxes and shapes
- The count includes punctuation and spaces
- Words in hidden slides are included
- Consider pasting text into Word to exclude images and formatting from the count
- Word counts in PowerPoint may differ from Word or Google Docs
Conclusion
Finding the word count in PowerPoint presentations is easy once you know where to look. This allows you to accurately track the length of presentations for assignments, comply with company standards, and more.
Remember to use File > Info > Show All Properties to see slides and notes words combined. Or export to Word for individual slide counts excluding images.
What strategies do you use to keep presentations a reasonable length while communicating effectively? Let me know in the comments!
