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Word count differences between applications
Thread poster: Fabrice -
Fabrice -
Fabrice -
Local time: 23:56
English to French
+ ...
Feb 16, 2007

I have just made the mistake of sending a quote based on an Openoffice word count, of course after running it in Ms Word and Wordfast I realized Openoffice word count is somewhat generous.

Same document different results:

- 48545words / wordfast 3.35
- 49073 words / Ms Word 2003
- 50987 words / Openoffice

I am certain the latest version of wordfast or trados would come up with a different count.

So what is the rule of thumb when it ... See more
I have just made the mistake of sending a quote based on an Openoffice word count, of course after running it in Ms Word and Wordfast I realized Openoffice word count is somewhat generous.

Same document different results:

- 48545words / wordfast 3.35
- 49073 words / Ms Word 2003
- 50987 words / Openoffice

I am certain the latest version of wordfast or trados would come up with a different count.

So what is the rule of thumb when it come to word count? Should I always use the value provided by my CAT? ▲ Collapse
 
tectranslate ITS GmbH
tectranslate ITS GmbH
Local time: 08:56
German
+ ...
Absolutely Feb 16, 2007

Fabrice Renaud wrote:

(...)
So what is the rule of thumb when it come to word count? Should I always use the value provided by my CAT?


Yes. Your CAT counts the words to translate and knows that field contents, repeated headers/footers etc. need not be counted. Word and other text processing apps will give you widely varying results based on totally different criteria.

HTH,
Benjamin
 
TNT TRANSLATION
TNT TRANSLATION  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 01:56
English to Korean
MS-WORD is universally owned. Feb 16, 2007

I use MS-WORD to count words because clients/agencies and I can agree since all have this word processor on PC or Mac.

I think your client will appreciate if you correct the word count with WORD and bill less than your original quote and will value your business practice.
 
Fabrice -
Fabrice -
Local time: 23:56
English to French
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
Already corrected the quote Feb 16, 2007

T n T Kim wrote:
I think your client will appreciate if you correct the word count with WORD and bill less than your original quote and will value your business practice.


That's already what I did, I submitted an updated quote after I realized word count was too high.

Last thing I want is a customer thinking I am overestimating word count on purpose.
 
Pablo Bouvier
Pablo Bouvier  Identity Verified
Local time: 08:56
German to Spanish
+ ...
Wordcounting Feb 27, 2007

I am sorry, but MS-Word and, at least Trados 7 Freelance, have business wordcounting, not a professional one. That is, they count under the real number of words with large or involved texts.

Install the WordCounAll macro and you'll see what I mean:

http://ginstrom.com/software/wordmacros/WordCountAll%20Setup.exe
 


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Word count differences between applications






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