When writing papers for university / colleges, some styles require inline references which are placed in parentheses. These should be excluded from the word count. Currently, you can enter Word Count separators which defaults to hyphens, long and short. What would be needed (I think) is to be able to enter separators which are made up of more than one character via a regex. In the above case "\(.*?\)" should do.
In an attempt to understand correctly: by "inline references" you are referring to manually entered text (like this), and not to some LibO functionality, right? Can you provide an example of a paragraph with inline reference, to see the use case? Also, why should inline references be excluded from the word count? I would think that those words are part of the document. Finally, what should happen in the case of words inside parenthesis that are part of regular text and not an inline reference? My guess is that LibO wouldn't be able to tell the difference.
Examples include Biblical references, which are usually inline for Turabian. For example, Luke tells us in the preceding context for the parable of the good Samaritan two details of significance as to the motivation of the teacher of the law Jesus was speaking to. Firstly, he had stood up in order to test Jesus, cloaked in a seemingly innocent question as to how he might inherit eternal life, but as one who knew the law already (Lk 10:25; cf. Dt 6:5). Secondly, knowing the extent of the laws requirements—in loving God with all one's soul, mind, strength, and in loving one's neighbour as oneself—he yet wanted to justify himself by asking, "And who is my neighbour?" (Lk 10:29; cf. Lev 18:5). An example specification is provided at the top of the following document: http://faculty.wartburg.edu/bouzardw/turabian_helps.pdf They should be excluded because they are like footnotes but merely required to be placed inline for formatting reasons. Other specs may require them as footnotes. As for other parentheses notes, there is no way to distinguish them. So if the preferences allow you to toggle the inclusion or exclusion of them, and perhaps whether they are indicated by parens, square or curly brackets, that might be okay.
(In reply to LD from comment #0) > When writing papers for university / colleges, some styles require inline > references which are placed in parentheses. These should be excluded from > the word count. I'm not sure about making it the default, but something configurable sounds reasonable. Status -> NEW