InDesign 2.0: Word Count using Visual Basic

Adding a Word Count to InDesign 2.0

TextCounter (Win) on Adobe Studio Exchange

One of the features missing from InDesign since its first version is a word count feature. In a fit of quiet rage and sheer stupidity, I wrote this simple Visual Basic 6.0 application that pops up a small window displaying the word count of the current selected story.

There is a Timer named tLexLuthor that waits around for a period of time

[1008] 01 lois lane timer

Just in case the user doesn’t want this turned on, there is a status button called bStart that toggles the timer tLexLuthor on and off.

[1009] 02 lois lane button

And finally there is a status field (read only) called lStatus. This is where the current word count is stored.

[1010] 03 lois lane label status

… And when running, this is how it looks.

[1011] 04 lois lane in action

The Visual Basic source that sits behind this small application is as follows:



			Dim myInDesign As InDesign.Application
			Dim myPub As InDesign.Document
			'button named bStart (toggles on/off of Timer)
			'lStatus as a label that contains the word count text
			'tLexLuthor as a Timer object
			Private Sub bStart_Click()

				  If (bStart.Caption = "Start") Then

				    bStart.Caption = "Stop"

				    tLexLuthor.Enabled = True

				    lStatus.Caption = ""

				  Else

				    bStart.Caption = "Start"

				    tLexLuthor.Enabled = False

				    lStatus.Caption = "waiting"

				  End If
			End Sub
			Private Sub tLexLuthor_Timer()

				  processEvent
			End Sub
			Private Sub processEvent()

				  Dim mySel As Object 'untyped object because we don't know what the selection is

				  On Error GoTo fail 'if anything goes wrong, don't call me

				  Set myInDesign = CreateObject("InDesign.Application")

				  Set myPub = myInDesign.ActiveDocument

				  Set mySel = myPub.Selection(1) 'a selection can be multiple objects, this time just get the first (and potentially only)

				  If (TypeOf mySel(1) Is InDesign.TextFrame) Then 'if it is a text frame, then

				    myCount = mySel(1).ParentStory.TextWords.Count 'get the word count from the text frame

				  ElseIf (TypeOf mySel(1) Is InDesign.InsertionPoint) Then 'or if its a insertion point, that is the user is typing

				    myCount = mySel(1).ParentTextFrame.ParentStory.TextWords.Count 'get the word count through the frame's text object

				  End If

				    lStatus.Caption = "word count: " & CStr(myCount) 'set the status

				  Exit Sub
			fail:

				  lStatus.Caption = ""

End Sub

The project and executable is here:Lois Lane example downloadable (3K)

Adding a Word Count to InDesign 2.0

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