[TxMt] Word Count ?

[Paul McCann]

Hi again,

> If you look at the pdf/ps source file, it is filled with special  
> commands and things. I suppose if you could export the pdf file to  
> a txt file, then you could count the words there with ease.

Believe me, I've had a good look inside pdf files. Not somewhere I'd  
like to live! Re exporting: nothing obvious rears its head up here,  
and Preview only allows you to export to graphical formats from pdf.

> You are better off with the small error from counting words in the  
> latex source instead.

Agreed: that's definitely what I would do if faced with such a task,  
so a simple command with . Thankfully I've rarely encountered a task  
in which the exact number of words is going to be crucial, but I  
imagine some essays/projects might have strict limits. Still, if you  
submit a pdf file the assessor is going to have to find a way to  
determine the word count!

Just for completeness' sake I tried Adobe's online pdf conversion  
tool on the same file I mentioned earlier (250 page pdf).

http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/access_onlinetools.html

It's been literally 5 minutes now and the thing is still spinning its  
wheels ("Please wait while the requested PDF file is being  
converted"), so I don't think that's going to come charging in to  
rescue the situation!

Cheers,
Paul