How to Find the Number of Words Using OpenOffice

1. Start OpenOffice. In the window that appears, click on the 'Text' button. This will open the 'Writer' application.
2. Select 'File' from the menu at the top and choose 'Open.' In the dialog that appears, go to a document that you want to determine the word count of and open it.
3. Click anywhere in the main text of the document. Select 'Tools' from the menu at the top and choose 'Word Count.' In the dialog that appears, go to the 'Whole Document' section. You will see the current word count for the entire document listed, as well as the character count. This includes both the main text and the footnotes. Click 'OK.'
4. Select a paragraph in the document. Select 'Tools' and choose 'Word Count.' This time, look in the 'Current Selection' area, which will show you the number of words and characters in the section you selected.
5. Exclude footnotes from the overall word count. To do this, select 'Edit' from the menu and choose 'Select All.' Only the text in the body of the document will be selected, not the notes. Now when you do the word count, you will get only the main text.