The other day, I fixed my Windows PC, so I went to work on NaNo there instead of on my Mac. I was quite pleased to see that my word count was about 120 higher than I remembered it being (45,211 vs 45,093). I was a little skeptical, though, so I closed down Scrivener, fired up the Mac, and saw that the 45,093 count was still active there. Perplexed, I exported my manuscript into Word, and it came out as 45,058.
I know that Word and Scrivener count words slightly differently, so I’m not concerned with this discrepancy. However, Scrivener should absolutely count words the same way between the Windows and Mac versions. I wound up deciding to just finish my book on the Mac to make sure my word count is as accurate as possible.
If this is a known issue, sorry for the repost. I couldn’t find anything using the search function. Posting it as a Windows bug because the Mac version was closer to Word’s word count than the Windows version was.
The Windows and Mac versions are entirely separate programs from the construction standpoint; the Mac version uses the Apple text engine, for instance, which Windows obviously can’t. So although we are certainly striving to make them match, not everything will be able to work exactly the same. That said, there are a few differences just in terms of current features that could affect the word count.
Where were you checking the count? Project Statistics is the most accurate for a count on your compiled settings, but Windows and Mac have the most differences right now between compile options. Your settings won’t even transfer from one platform to another for compile, so if for instance you were counting chapter titles on the Mac, that wouldn’t automatically be set up on Windows. On the flip side, the Mac compile options allow you to refine what text is included in the statistics, so for instance you might be excluding front matter text from the count there. On Windows this isn’t yet possible, so all that text would be included in the word count.
When can we expect to be able to limit what is included in word count in the Windows version? It seems an oversight to include front matter in the word count.