Feature Request for Writer: Word count limits in academic writing often exclude text that appears in footnotes and endnotes and sometimes inline citations. The Microsoft Word word count function ('Review->Word_Count' in v2010) has an option to 'Include/Exclude textboxes, footnotes and endnotes'. This allows the user to switch instantly between the total number of words in the entire document and the number of words excluding footnotes/endnotes. Such documents often have several hundred words referencing sources in footnotes/endnotes.

A previous response to this feature request in this forum included a link to the following suggestion:

Get a word count for just the Text Body paragraph style: Open Word Count.. Tools --> Word Count & move it to the side... then... Find & Replace --> More Options --> Tick 'Search for Styles' --> Search For 'Text Body' --> Find All Then the word count is displayed the word count window under 'Current selection'.

That works if the Default Style is the only style used in the body of the document. However, many documents will have chapter headings, section headings and sub-headings etc., which would also be excluded by the above method. If all that is required is a rough estimate, that may not be a problem; but the current word count feature implementation is neither entirely fit for this purpose, nor is it straightforward.

An enhanced word count function, similar to the one in MS Word, would enable Writer to deliver an accurate word count for an academic document if it had the option to exclude footnotes/endnotes in a way that is both convenient and easy to use.