Essays, journal articles, and theses often have word limits that apply only to the main text, not the footnotes. Microsoft Word can give you that number with one checkbox. The Word Count box has an option for including text boxes, footnotes, and endnotes. Turn it off, and the count shows only your body text. This guide shows where that option is on Windows and Mac, how to leave out other parts like a bibliography, and how to double-check the number.
Quick answer
Go to the Review tab and click Word Count. Uncheck Include textboxes, footnotes and endnotes. The count updates right away to exclude them.
How to exclude footnotes from the word count in Word
Step 1: Open your document
Open the document in Word. You don’t need to select anything if you want the count for the whole document.
Step 2: Open Word Count
Click the Review tab, then click Word Count in the Proofing group. You can also click the word count on the status bar at the bottom of the window, or press Ctrl + Shift + G.
Step 3: Uncheck the footnotes option
At the bottom of the Word Count box, uncheck Include textboxes, footnotes and endnotes. The numbers for words, characters, paragraphs, and lines change immediately.
Step 4: Note the count and close
Read the Words number, then click Close. Word remembers the setting the next time you open the box.
On a Mac
In Word for Mac, go to Review > Word Count, or Tools > Word Count in the menu bar. Uncheck Include textboxes, footnotes and endnotes. For more Mac options, see our guide on doing a word count on a Mac.
What the option leaves out (and what it doesn’t)
- Excluded when unchecked: footnote text, endnote text, and text inside text boxes.
- Still counted: the small footnote reference numbers in your body text, in-text citations like (Smith, 2024), headings, captions, tables, and a bibliography or reference list typed into the body.
- Never counted: headers and footers.
If you put sidebar notes or pull quotes in text boxes, unchecking the option removes those too.
Exclude the bibliography or other sections
Many word limits don’t count the title page, abstract, or references. Word can’t skip those automatically, but you can count just the part you need:
- Click at the start of the section you want to count, such as the first paragraph of your introduction.
- Hold Shift and click at the end of the section, just before your references.
- The status bar now shows something like “1,850 of 2,400 words.” The first number is your selection.
- Open Review > Word Count with the text still selected to see the full statistics for just that part.
Want to see only the footnotes’ word count?
Open Word Count once with the option checked and once with it unchecked. The difference is the number of words in your footnotes, endnotes, and text boxes. Our guide on selecting all footnotes in Word shows another way to work with them as a group.
Hide or remove footnotes instead
If you need a clean draft without notes, for example to share the main text with an editor, you have two options. You can hide them so they stay in the file, as covered in our guide on hiding footnotes in Word. Or you can delete them from a copy of the document. See removing all footnotes in Word, and save a copy first, because deleting footnotes removes the reference numbers and note text together.
Google Docs
Google Docs handles footnotes differently. See our guide on including footnotes in the word count in Google Docs.
Tips
- Check your school or publisher’s rules. Some count footnotes and some don’t.
- If the status bar count doesn’t appear, right-click the status bar and check Word Count.
Frequently asked questions
Does Word count footnotes by default?
Out of the box, Word usually leaves footnotes and endnotes out. But Word remembers whatever you last chose in the Word Count box, so check the setting before reporting a number, especially on a shared or borrowed computer.
Will unchecking the option delete my footnotes?
No. It only changes what’s counted. Your footnotes stay in the document.
Summary
- Open Review > Word Count.
- Uncheck Include textboxes, footnotes and endnotes.
- Select a range to exclude the bibliography or other sections.
Kermit Matthews is a freelance writer based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania with more than a decade of experience writing technology guides. He has a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in Computer Science and has spent much of his professional career in IT management.
He specializes in writing content about iPhones, Android devices, Microsoft Office, and many other popular applications and devices.