How many words are in my copy block?

You've been assigned to write a 500 word story about the first day of school. ;Maybe you've been told to write an article for the opening spread. How do you know if you've written enough? You need a quick way to figure this out. Let InDesign® do the work for you.

If the text has already been written:

• Click on the Type tool
• Click inside the text block
• Open the Info palette
  • Click on the Info palette tab or
  • Go to Window > Info
• The number of characters, words, lines and paragraphs are listed at the bottom of the palette

To figure out the amount of text needed to fill a space:

• Click on the Type tool
• Click inside the text block
• Go to Text > Fill with Placeholder text
• Open the Info palette
• Click on the Info palette tab or
• Window > Info
• To replace the placeholder text,
  • Highlight it with the type tool
  • Either type the new text or
  • Place or paste the text you have already written