Easiest way of counting characters?

On Thu, 10 Dec 2009 21:41:28 -0600, Whoosh
wrote:

>Can someone recommend a simple way of counting characters? I'm doing
>searches on Ebay but they only allow about 100 characters. I can copy and
>paste into some text editor but neither Notepad or Wordpad seems to have
>this capability or I missed it. Does MS Word 2007 have this feature? I
>need to count characters, not words.

No need for any special software. Somewhere not on the web, type a
string that is 100 characters long.

Then below that, type your ebay search terms. Some** editors allow 80
characters per line, so in that case, you'll be allowed 20 for the
next line. Fairly easy to count, but even easier to compare with the
2nd line of the 100 character sample line, 2 or 3 lines up.

For example
0123456789012345678901234567890123.... or better yet
abcdefghi/abcdefghi/abcdefghi/abcdefghi/...

If you do this a lot, save the file.

**I usually use Eudora for temporary notetaking, and it wraps at less
than 80.
 >> Stay informed about: Easiest way of counting characters? 

>> Can someone recommend a simple way of counting characters? I'm doing
>> searches on Ebay but they only allow about 100 characters. I can copy
>> and paste into some text editor but neither Notepad or Wordpad seems to
>> have
>> this capability or I missed it. Does MS Word 2007 have this feature? I
>> need to count characters, not words.
>
> No need for any special software. Somewhere not on the web, type a
> string that is 100 characters long.
>
> Then below that, type your ebay search terms. Some** editors allow 80
> characters per line, so in that case, you'll be allowed 20 for the
> next line. Fairly easy to count, but even easier to compare with the
> 2nd line of the 100 character sample line, 2 or 3 lines up.
>
> For example
> 0123456789012345678901234567890123.... or better yet
> abcdefghi/abcdefghi/abcdefghi/abcdefghi/...
>
> If you do this a lot, save the file.
>
> **I usually use Eudora for temporary notetaking, and it wraps at less
> than 80.

LOL....brilliantly logical and simple.
But I'd also like to be able to instantly count the exact number of
characters because Ebay's length restriction is not consistent and I'd
like to try to follow that inconsistency so I can milk it for all its
worth. But if I do the 1234567890 routine that would be pretty good.
Here's 100 characters. If its in rich text I should be able to mark each
group so I can know what group of ten I'm in. Or I could always activate
the ruler for help perhaps. I never use that thing but maybe it finally
has a purpose.
1234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890
 >> Stay informed about: Easiest way of counting characters? 

> 1234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890

Here's a revision. Working with Mono Spaced fonts (DejaVu Sans Mono here)
makes life so nice. This is where you thank God for widescreen
monitors. Time for the 16:9 aspect ratio.

1234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456789012345
10 20 30 40 50 60
70 80 90 100 110
 >> Stay informed about: Easiest way of counting characters? 

Notepad. Turn ON Status bar, turn OFF Word Wrap.

Whoosh wrote:

> Can someone recommend a simple way of counting characters? I'm doing
> searches on Ebay but they only allow about 100 characters. I can copy
> and paste into some text editor but neither Notepad or Wordpad seems to
> have this capability or I missed it. Does MS Word 2007 have this
> feature? I need to count characters, not words.
 >> Stay informed about: Easiest way of counting characters? 

>> Can someone recommend a simple way of counting characters? I'm doing
>> searches on Ebay but they only allow about 100 characters. I can copy
>> and paste into some text editor but neither Notepad or Wordpad seems
>> to have this capability or I missed it. Does MS Word 2007 have this
>> feature? I need to count characters, not words.
>>
> Notepad. Turn ON Status bar, turn OFF Word Wrap.

Tried that. It says Ln1, Col1. No counting of characters.
 >> Stay informed about: Easiest way of counting characters? 

Whoosh wrote:
>>> Can someone recommend a simple way of counting characters? I'm
>>> doing searches on Ebay but they only allow about 100 characters. I
>>> can copy and paste into some text editor but neither Notepad or
>>> Wordpad seems to have this capability or I missed it. Does MS Word
>>> 2007 have this feature? I need to count characters, not words.
>>>
>> Notepad. Turn ON Status bar, turn OFF Word Wrap.
>
> Tried that. It says Ln1, Col1. No counting of characters.

You didn't try hard enough. Start typing, and the column count will
increase...

Bill
 >> Stay informed about: Easiest way of counting characters? 

Whoosh wrote:
>>> Can someone recommend a simple way of counting characters? I'm
>>> doing searches on Ebay but they only allow about 100 characters. I
>>> can copy and paste into some text editor but neither Notepad or
>>> Wordpad seems to have this capability or I missed it. Does MS
>>> Word 2007 have this feature? I need to count characters, not
>>> words.
>> Notepad. Turn ON Status bar, turn OFF Word Wrap.
>
> Tried that. It says Ln1, Col1. No counting of characters.

Mine does when I input characters the col number increases in step.
 >> Stay informed about: Easiest way of counting characters? 

>>>> Can someone recommend a simple way of counting characters? I'm
>>>> doing searches on Ebay but they only allow about 100 characters. I
>>>> can copy and paste into some text editor but neither Notepad or
>>>> Wordpad seems to have this capability or I missed it. Does MS
>>>> Word 2007 have this feature? I need to count characters, not
>>>> words.
>>> Notepad. Turn ON Status bar, turn OFF Word Wrap.
>>
>> Tried that. It says Ln1, Col1. No counting of characters.
>
> Mine does when I input characters the col number increases in step.

Thanks for the correction. I didn't realize its controlled by the mouse
cursor position. Just highlighting text doesn't do anything. You have to
place the cursor at the end of the line to know the characters in that
line.
 >> Stay informed about: Easiest way of counting characters? 

Whoosh wrote:
> Can someone recommend a simple way of counting characters? I'm
> doing searches on Ebay but they only allow about 100 characters. I
> can copy and paste into some text editor but neither Notepad or
> Wordpad seems to have this capability or I missed it. Does MS Word
> 2007 have this feature? I need to count characters, not words.

"Review" ribbon in Word 2007 has "Word count", which if you click will give
you a character count with and without spaces.
 >> Stay informed about: Easiest way of counting characters? 

>> Can someone recommend a simple way of counting characters? I'm
>> doing searches on Ebay but they only allow about 100 characters. I
>> can copy and paste into some text editor but neither Notepad or
>> Wordpad seems to have this capability or I missed it. Does MS Word
>> 2007 have this feature? I need to count characters, not words.
>
> "Review" ribbon in Word 2007 has "Word count", which if you click will
> give you a character count with and without spaces.

Now THAT's what I'd call a character counter! Thanks. While I'm "here"
in Word, do you happen to know how to make it default to web view when
opening documents? Also when I use the Menu Bar via keyboard shortcuts it
says, for example when I use Alt_V for View: "Continue typing the Office
2003 menu key sequence....." but nothing happens. Is there a new keyboard
shortcut for View? It seems odd that they would change such a commonly
used keyboard shortcut as Alt_V.
 >> Stay informed about: Easiest way of counting characters?