How to Do Word Count in PDF Files
Whether for planning translation budgets, estimating reading times or ensuring compliance to regulatory length limits, accurately counting words in PDF documents is pivotal across countless business and academic settings. Historically, PDFs presented challenges for word totals lacking native counters of Microsoft Office formats.
However, modern Acrobat capabilities, web-based utilities and new AI functionalities now simplify tallying words, tables and graphs within PDFs of any length, language or complexity. Let’s explore key techniques.
Using Adobe Acrobat Pro DC
As the industry standard PDF editor software, Adobe Acrobat Pro DC contains integrated functionality to count words, characters and lines of text which can include or exclude numbers as needed. Under the Tools pane, simply click on Accessibility then add Tags before running the Numbers analysis.
Results display the overview statistically including word range length allowing context into complexity alongside total sums which can export into excel for additional manipulation. Straightforward yet reliable.
How to Do Word Count in PDF Without Acrobat
You don’t need expensive Adobe software to analyze PDF file word counts. Alternative programs and AI tools can extract text for accurate counts just as effectively. Options like Able2Extract, Google Docs, WordCounter and more offer straightforward workflows for tallying words in PDF documents.
Using Able2Extract Professional or Slim PDF Reader
Able2Extract is a widely trusted PDF editor available in Professional and Slim versions. Beyond editing, form filling and conversion capabilities, it also quickly generates word and character counts for one or multiple uploaded PDFs.
After opening a file in the editor interface, users simply click the convenient “View Document Properties” pane to see text statistics displayed, including word number. Batch processing handles large volumes of documents at once as well.
Utilizing Google Docs
The free Google Docs office suite includes built-in PDF import functionality. Upload a file, select the option to “Insert Entire PDF”, then let Google OCR technology extract the contents seamlessly.
Once finished processing, view the bottom left corner of the Docs page to see a continually updated word count for the visible text. Since it’s cloud-based, word totals remain updated in real-time even when sharing the file with remote teams.
Using Microsoft Word
A beneficial workaround leverages converting the PDF file itself into an editable Word document through Acrobat’s export function or even just copying/pasting contents. From there, Microsoft Word’s native Review tab surfaces helpful statistics on word count, reading time, character spacing and alphabetical lengths to deliver an informative mixture of metrics.
This approach is less direct but useful when combined with Word’s capabilities around the imported content.
Using AI Tools for Word Count
Dedicated AI tools like PopAi provide instant PDF word totals through capabilities like optical character recognition and machine learning algorithms.
Web-based services enable accessible word counting from any device. Some AI tools also present the additional option to remove numbers, images or other non-alphabetical characters from tallies for more purely text-based counts. Their advanced statistics present an efficient method for regular users.
With many choices beyond Adobe Acrobat, getting a quick and accurate PDF word count doesn’t require financial investment or expertise. User-friendly apps have simplified the process for productivity-focused individuals and teams.
Advantages of AI Tools for Word Count in PDF Files
Accurate and Efficient Word Count
Purpose-built AI software like PopAi fully interprets both text and images within PDF files using optical and cognitive recognition to extract every embeddable word across all pages without partial exclusions or limitations affecting counts. This ensures true, complete word totals and text visibility.
Ability to Count Non-Text Elements
While traditional word counting tools focus solely on strings of alphanumeric characters, AI expands visibility to tally images, graphs, tables and other embedded media into overall statistics based on descriptive captions and adjacent contextual text explaining the items. This ingests previously ignored design elements.
Easy Conversion to Other Formats
OCR capabilities within advanced AI platforms require just one-click to render scanned or print-based PDF files into accessible, digital Word documents or HTML sites retaining all formatting. This allows instant usability improvements like searchability, comments or track changes for collaborative editing based on original files.
Conclusion
Tallying words enables benchmarking, planning and compliant documentation across entities. Direct Acrobat built-ins now deliver helpful statistics from PDF files supplemented by AI’s cloud-based optical and cognitive text recognition for unrivaled visibility into full document contents using natural language interfaces.
