For long documents I generally make each chapter/section a separate file within a dedicated folder. I'm looking for ways to get a total word count without having to open each file in turn. File explorer in windows in theory allows you to display word count by adding it as a field, but that doesn't work with LibreOffice files whether saved as .doc or .odt. Nor can I get a master document to display the total word count. Is there a way round this or do I have to bite the bullet and go through everything?
Libre Office - wordcount without opening file.
- Thread starter TheFabulist
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AFAIK, you'll have to copy each chapter file <copy to> to a new file thereby creating a master document/file (the complete book) which will give you a complete word count upon finishing loading. The good news is that you'll only have to do this once. You can still work on the individual chapter files, just remember to save changes to the master document file, thereby keeping the word count current.
For whatever it's worth--maybe nothing--lots of us used to keep chapters as separate documents rather than writing an entire novel in a single document. For old computer with small RAM, it made sense. The file opened quickly, you could move through it without the computer lagging, etc. I wrote novels that way and thought I was being smart.
For the time, maybe I was, but it stopped being a good idea when I edited. Change a character's name? Open every chapter, use Find and Replace twenty-three times. Check that I didn't contradict myself on those two streets that intersect? Sheesh, good luck finding the few chapters that mention street names. Open about twenty of them. Time to minimize adverbs ending in -ly plus a few faves that don't, like just and very? Open all twenty-three chapters, repeat the same three searches. Want to make sure every it's is a contraction of it is or it has? Yup, check all twenty-three. What happened in edits is that what could have, should have been quick look-ups became a long and tiresome process.
Back then, I broke novels into halves. It minimized lag and streamlines edits, revision, and rewrites. Not that I sold the result, but I was learning.
Fast forward to the present. Any computer less than four or five years old can easily handle the text of an entire novel in a single document. It will be a bit of drudge work to create a new document that is this draft of the book and move each document that's a chapter into it, in order. (Or copy and paste it if you worry this won't work, so your originals will be untouches.) But IMO, it's totally worth the effort. I bet you can do it in fifteen or twenty minutes.
I've written all my novels and novellas as one document for years now, and I don't have super-computers or anything. Libre Office will give you the word count of the whole, of course, and if for any reason you want the word count of a chapter, you can just select its text.
Maryn, who also backs up faithfully
For the time, maybe I was, but it stopped being a good idea when I edited. Change a character's name? Open every chapter, use Find and Replace twenty-three times. Check that I didn't contradict myself on those two streets that intersect? Sheesh, good luck finding the few chapters that mention street names. Open about twenty of them. Time to minimize adverbs ending in -ly plus a few faves that don't, like just and very? Open all twenty-three chapters, repeat the same three searches. Want to make sure every it's is a contraction of it is or it has? Yup, check all twenty-three. What happened in edits is that what could have, should have been quick look-ups became a long and tiresome process.
Back then, I broke novels into halves. It minimized lag and streamlines edits, revision, and rewrites. Not that I sold the result, but I was learning.
Fast forward to the present. Any computer less than four or five years old can easily handle the text of an entire novel in a single document. It will be a bit of drudge work to create a new document that is this draft of the book and move each document that's a chapter into it, in order. (Or copy and paste it if you worry this won't work, so your originals will be untouches.) But IMO, it's totally worth the effort. I bet you can do it in fifteen or twenty minutes.
I've written all my novels and novellas as one document for years now, and I don't have super-computers or anything. Libre Office will give you the word count of the whole, of course, and if for any reason you want the word count of a chapter, you can just select its text.
Maryn, who also backs up faithfully
My original motivation for the separate file/chapter approach was because I was posting to a forum in sections and it was easier that way. My current PC is specified for editing video, so can easily handle long documents. I don't find editing long documents on the screen very easy though, so at intervals I print everything out and make my changes by hand. The change in perspective seems to help in seeing problems. In extremis, I revert to the pre-word processor method and literally cut and paste (or more likely staple) When I was sending copy like that off to typists, I don't know how they made sense of it, but they always managed!
I will at some stage combine the files, perhaps as part of my current edit, which is aimed at resolving some time line issues.
I will at some stage combine the files, perhaps as part of my current edit, which is aimed at resolving some time line issues.
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The other solution would be to keep a spreadsheet with a wordcount. When you finish a chapter, make a note of the total and enter in your spreadsheet.
Well yes, but if I'd done that at the start I wouldn't need to ask the question. As it is, (or was at the time of originally asking) I had 50+ files and I was looking for a quick way out. In the end, because I had to reread everything for a major revision/edit having painted myself into a corner, I did exactly that and the answer turned out o be 51,000. Which was actually illuminating in its own right, because I had planned to take the story from 1910 to 1947, but so far I'm only up to early 1914!
(At this point, don't even worry about the length. The first goal is a complete draft, no matter how bloated or sloppy. Your second draft can revise for word count.)
Maryn, who writes fat
Maryn, who writes fat
I think I'm still learning that I don't have to have it finished by this time next week. All my working life I had deadlines of days or weeks and it's a hard habit to kick.
Strange that it isn't working for you. I do this all this time. Open a master document. add all your chapters. (insert icon>files) Then go into tools > wordcount. I Just tried it now and it works 100%. If it still doesn't, just click on Edit > Links. Select all the chapters and click on "break links." Then it will convert it to a normal document.
Don't know what I was doing before, but that works, although the layout is odd. I last used Master Documents with Word and Libre Office behaves rather differently.
It is a little weird. You should have seen it a few years back. You had to click and hold the insert icon to open the submenu.
Anyway, glad it worked
Thanks for the help. I'm still struggling with formatting the master document but if all else fails I can do that to the final version. I've stopped trying to format chapters as I go anyway and have set up basic styles instead - which of course I should have done before I started I know...
This discussion reveals one of the best reasons for keeping everything in a single document. Long gone are the days when the length of a document was a significant problem, at least for us writers of fiction stuff. I once tried the one-document-per-chapter approach and soon learned to detest it, for purely practical reasons.
Also, be aware that Libre Office counts "wprds" a little differently than MS-Word does, and it generally results in a longer word count.
caw
Also, be aware that Libre Office counts "wprds" a little differently than MS-Word does, and it generally results in a longer word count.
caw
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