Counting words in footnotes and endnotes

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donb
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Counting words in footnotes and endnotes

Post by donb »

There has frequently been a request for Mellel to include in its Statistics Palette the word count for footnotes and endnotes, and of course this is very much needed.

In the meantime it is possible to construct a Find and Replace expression which will do this for you, and to save it as a Findset:

1. In the Find and Replace panel choose “Word boundary” from the Insert Element list.
2. Then choose “Alphanumeric” from the Insert Element list.
3. Double click on the resulting alphanumeric icon to bring up the Repetition window, and choose “Once or more” and “Greedy” as the repetition elements.
4. Again choose “Word Boundary” from the Insert Element list.
5. Ensure that only “Footnotes” is ticked in the right hand column.
6. In the Replace part of the panel select “Found expression” from the Insert Element list.
7. Click on the Save Find Action button, and name the Find Action “Count words in footnotes”.
8. Press command-shift-f to bring up the Edit Find Set window.
9. In the left column highlight “Count words in footnotes”
10. Press the arrow between the two columns.
11. Press the Save FindSet button, and name the set Count words in footnotes”.
Now, when you wish to know the number of words in the footnotes of a document, simply press command-shift-f to bring up the FindSet window. Click on the Load FindSet button, and choose Count words in footnotes and clock on Open. Finally click on Run Findset. The result will be a number with a check mark beside it, in the right column. The number is the total number of footnotes in the document.
Though this seems cumbersome, it does work reliably, and can be used until such a time as the statistics palette is revised to include the count of words in footnotes, which so many people want and need. This also includes endnotes, if there are any in the document.
Don Broadribb
nicka
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Post by nicka »

This seems to work well. Thanks Don!
donb
Knows everything, can prove it
Posts: 326
Joined: Thu Oct 20, 2005 7:43 am

Post by donb »

I have discovered that some people who tried out my footnote word count system ran into trouble after step 3: namely, after having done the repetition as "once or more" and "greedy", and having closed that window, they did not notice that the icon is still highlighted. You must click to the right of the icon to deselect it and place the second Word boundary icon beside it.

Don Broadribb
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