Translators and article writers, but not only, may find a word counting application such as AnyCount to be extremely useful. The program doesn’t count just words. It also counts characters, lines, pages and even lets you create custom units.
Installation & Requirements
The language selection dialog box, is the only one worth mentioning from the swift, standard setup offered by AnyCount. The program supports Albanian, Belarusian, Catalan, Czech, English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese and Slovenian languages.
At first run, users are offered the possibility of purchasing a license and registering the product. You should know that AnyCount is available in three editions: Standard, Professional and Enterprise. The difference between them is the number of supported file formats. However, you can test the 30-day trial version for free, with a few disabled features.
AnyCount’s minimum hardware requirements include: 300 MHz or higher CPU, at least 128 MB of RAM, 40 MB of free HDD space and a VGA/SVGA monitor with at least 800×600 resolution and 256 colors. The program runs on Windows 98, ME, 2000, XP, 2003, Vista and 7.
Interface
AnyCount’s clean and intuitive UI eases up the confusion new users might get from the rich array of included features. A standard menu is present at the top of the window, but the simple approach would be using the step-by-step configuration offered at the bottom of the interface.
Adding files is the first step of course. The Standard Edition of Anycount supports many file formats, namely txt, rtf, Microsoft Office formats (Word, Excel, PowerPoint), Corel WordPerfect and ZIP & RAR archives. The more expensive editions, Professional and Enterprise add support for markup languages (HTM, HTML and XML), pdf, OpenOffice formats, help files and even images (Enterprise edition only).
Any file you add will be placed in its own category under a dedicated tab. The next step would be opening the Settings menu to configure the count. A set of general settings is offered, such as skipping numbers and multi-core processing among others. There are also format-related settings available in different tabs. For example, the section dedicated to Word, Rich Text Format and Corel WordPerfect formats offers the possibility of taking into account footnotes, headers, textboxes, shapes, comments, hidden text and others.
Users can choose from the predefined count units – words, characters with/without spaces, lines and pages – or they can create a custom unit in a dedicated box. Once you’re satisfied with the settings, click the Count button and let AnyCount do its job. A summary with the results will be displayed as soon as the count is complete.
Multiple exporting options are available, such as sending the results to the clipboard or saving them as PDF, RTF, HTML, XLS or DOC formats. Users can also print the results and create invoices, although the latter option is only available in the Enterprise edition of AnyCount.
Pros
– Quick setup.
– Clean, well-organized interface with dedicated tabs for all functions
– Offers built-in count units and the possibility to create custom ones.
– Other count settings are available for specific file formats.
– Multiple exporting options are available.
– Contains a comprehensive help file.
Cons
– None worth mentioning.
Conclusion
AnyCount is extremely well equipped for counting words, characters, lines and other units. The program supports lots of file formats, has a ton of options that will allow users to refine the count process and a straightforward, neat layout to ease your counting tasks as much as possible.
