Simple Word Count Tool Update Makes Grant Writing Easier

Have you ever experienced that breakthrough moment of crafting the perfect sentence that might compare to the wit of Jane Austin or the power of Thoreau only to remember to check the word count and find that you are some dozen words over. Frustrated, and wishing that English did not have articles, you comb back through the document trying to find something to eliminate or reword. Then you check the word count again...and back and forth until checking the word count one more time might just throw you over the edge.

Most grant proposals, application essays and even some types of reports have a word count limit and many are written in Google Docs. Google Docs is collaborative and makes it much easier to have multiple editors and writers. But the lack of information concerning word or character count can be quite frustrating. Until recently, one had to manually check the word count in a kind of pop-up window that did not stay open while typing.

However, Google, with all it’s vast data, must have heard the cries of frustrated writers everywhere and they have updated the Google Docs platform to include an “Always On” word count tool. Below is a quick video showing you how to turn on the count as well as toggle between different options.

And in case you prefer to use Word over Google Docs, here is another video with a quick tutorial of the word count feature there.

May your future proposal writing (or any writing for that matter) be at least slightly less frustrating now that you know how to use the always on word count tool.