Counting Error

[tamaranth]

Not only can Microsoft Word not count words*, it can't even count pages.

Rather than face retail nightmare, I decided to 'work late' and print my novel.

Pages 1-107 are 'page x of 107'.

Pages 108-146 are 'page x of 144'. (Yes, 144.)

Page 108, printed, is page 106 on screen.

I know, I know: printer fonts may vary, print preview is only ever a rough guide, objects in the mirror are closer than they appear, void where prohibited by law, may affect your health, etc etc. But still.

At least I have it in writing now.

*don't get me started. But briefly: hyphenation, punctuation, footnotes.

Comments

[flickgc.livejournal.com]

Are they numbered like that in print layout, or are they numbered correctly?

If the former, it sounds like you've got non-breaking sections in there with funny numbering ont he sections. Or did you already think of that?

[tamaranth.livejournal.com]

print layout has finally settled on 144 pages (although this is patently Wrong) ... and I don't think there are any sections in there at all: should be straightforward text and headers, no page breaks for chapters or anything!

This is Word 97 though, and presumably I should view this as a charming antique finish, as opposed to a Bug.

Novel heavy. Wouldn't have double-spaced lines if I'd known it was going to be so heavy.

[reddragdiva]

Word is notoriously unable to cope well with documents over about fifty pages, and all extra text like headers and footers is fucked up royally. Did you try OO?

[tamaranth.livejournal.com]

Didn't try OO, which I have at home: whole point of exercise was to use Werk printer (as have not yet connected mine, which I have had for, um, a year or so). Decided to go the "swearing at printer and ignoring page numbers" route instead ... this copy is just for marking-up, scribbling on and generally Editing.

[reddragdiva]

For that sort of thing, you get the layout exactly as you want it and then save to PDF. Word can't mess it up then ;-)

[spride.livejournal.com]

Also, the VBA functions to count words [used to, and still may] count CHR$(9), CHR$(10) and CHR$(13) as words.

(tab, newline, return for non-VB[x] types)