Keeping to a word limit with Write by Zaweba

Essays, competition entries and job applications often come with a word limit. Speeches and talks come with a time limit, which is a word limit in disguise. Knowing where you stand while you write saves a frantic trim at the end, and Write by Zaweba keeps the numbers in view all the time.

Always in the status bar

The status bar at the bottom of the window shows the word count, the character count and an estimated reading time. They update as you type, so you can watch an essay approach its target or see a covering letter creep past a page without having to open anything.

Tools > Word count gives the details when you want more than the headline numbers. It is the place to look when you need to report a count exactly, such as on a form that asks for the length of a submission.

Words or characters

Most essays and articles are measured in words. Some forms, though, limit characters instead: online applications, short biographies for a programme, the summary box on a grant form or a text you will paste into a website. A limit of a few hundred characters fills far faster than you would expect, so check which one the form means.

If you are writing text to paste into a box on a website, draft it in Write where you have spell check and undo, keep an eye on the character count, then paste it across when it fits.

Reading time for talks and posts

Reading time is an estimate of how long the text takes to read. It is useful when you are writing something to be read aloud, like a speech at a wedding, a eulogy, a report to a committee or a reading in church. If your slot is five minutes and the status bar suggests much longer, you know to cut before the rehearsal rather than after.

Speaking is usually slower than silent reading, especially with pauses for effect, so treat the figure as a lower bound when you are going to read aloud. A practice run with a watch is still the best test.

It also helps with blog posts and newsletters, where readers like to know roughly how long a piece will take.

Working to a limit

Write the whole draft first, then cut. Trimming as you go slows you down and often removes the wrong things.

When cutting, start with the big wins. A paragraph that repeats an earlier point can go entirely. Then look for phrases that can shrink: "in order to" to "to", "at this point in time" to "now", "due to the fact that" to "because".

Check the rules on what counts. Universities differ on whether footnotes, headings, tables and the bibliography count towards the limit. Competitions sometimes exclude the title. Work out what you need to count before you trust the total.

Focus mode, which you turn on with F11, hides everything but the pages for distraction-free writing. When you come out of it, the status bar shows how far you have come.

Small checks before sending

Look at the counts one last time after final edits. A late paragraph added during proofreading can tip you over.

If a form asks for a word count to be stated, give the figure Write shows. If it seems different from what another program reports, that is normal, because programs can treat things like numbers and hyphenated words differently. Stating the count you measured, from the tool you used, is fair.

Having the numbers always visible is a simple thing that changes how you write. You stop worrying about length and get on with the content, knowing you will see the moment you hit the target.