Is it possible to get a running total for the word count of a project?
I’ve spent a long time trying to find a way of doing it within Scrivener, but I can’t find anything that will show me the running total up to the current chapter automatically.
I know that I can do it either by by selecting the documents up to a certain point and seeing the word count for the selection, or by exporting to csv and then using numbers to get the total, but each time I restructure or edit chapters I will have to do those counts again manually.
The reason I want to do this is to make sure I’m hitting particular plot points at certain percentages of the book.
Well, the way I do it is to have a folder inside the Draft folder that completely contains my manuscript (i.e., add a second “draft” folder inside the first, and put my chapters inside that.) This came about for me because I’m keeping my entire series inside one project, so the folders that hold my “volumes” have the place that chapters do in a stand-alone novel structure.
One of the things that can be tough to visualize is that the container structure inside the draft folder doesn’t have to match the structure the reader sees. I have a status I call “chunk.” I use it to mark things that only contain other text so that I can have a running total of it. Though I have to check “include in compile” for my “chunks” in order to see the running totals, I filter out documents with the status of “chunk” in compile so that structure doesn’t affect my compile. Here are some screen shots:
Embarrassingly, I’ve already got the same rough structure, with folders called ‘acts’ set up containing the chapters. I just hadn’t thought of clicking on them to see the total word count for that act!
Thank you very much for taking the time and trouble for doing the screenshots. It made it much clearer for me.
First of all, the below is not directed at you SilverDragon, nothing but respect for you to take the time to make such a nice tutorial of how to do yet another workaround for Scrivener.
Dear Scrivener,
What am I seeing then when I hover over the top central search bar and I see a word count? Is the total word count shown not the correct word count in my manuscript? I’ve nothing in the Manuscript folder but chapters.
Those numbers are governed by your settings in the window that pops up from Project->Project Targets. That window as an Options button that allows you to include or exclude documents that would be included in the compiled output.
Those numbers should reflect how many words/characters are in your chapters; if there are too many, then your project targets settings probably include documents that are outside of the draft folder.
