Counting words might sound straightforward—but behind the scenes, different programs use different rules to decide what actually counts as a “word.” That’s why the same text might show slightly different word counts depending on where you’re checking.
For example, is and/or one word or two? What about end-of-week, or it’s? Some programs count hyphenated terms and contractions as a single word because there are no spaces. Others may split them because they’re judging by punctuation and not spaces.
Because of this, it’s completely normal to see word counts vary between programs—even by as much as 10% in some cases. So if you see 500 words in Atticus and 550 in another program like Microsoft Word, there’s no need to worry. Each program is using its own method to calculate the count, and those methods are internally consistent.
Example:
“I wasn’t sure whether we were ‘ready-to-go’ at 9 a.m. or closer to 10:15,” said Jamie. “So I emailed Pat—cc’ing Jordan—and told them to check the co-op’s shared doc (https://bit.ly/ReadyToGo-Plan). It’s updated Monday–Thursday, incl. holidays.”
FYI, there’s a to-do list within the app (re: onboarding, new-hire details, etc.). You’ll need to re-check it post-meeting and/or share it with Sam.
P.S. Don’t forget the team’s end-of-week wrap-up is scheduled for 3:30 p.m.—sharp!
Word: 75 Words
Google Docs: 81 Words
Atticus: 71 Words