THE REFERENCE DESK
User manual
A clear reference for your draft, its counts, and the choices around them.
Start with the draft
- Type or paste into Your draft, or choose Open file for a UTF-8 TXT/Markdown file.
- Read the live whole-draft counts above the editor. They update shortly after an edit.
- Optionally open Writing targets & timing to set a word goal or maximum and your reading/speaking speeds.
- Copy the draft, download its text, or download a statistics report.
The app measures text. It does not rewrite, clean, correct grammar, or judge quality. Read the counting guide when another product reports a different number.
What each number means
| Result | Rule | Keep in mind |
|---|---|---|
| Words | Nonempty groups separated by JavaScript whitespace. | A hyphen/apostrophe does not split a group. Punctuation or emoji on its own is a group too. This is not language-aware dictionary segmentation. |
| Characters | Unicode code points, including whitespace. | Combining accents and joined emoji can use several code points. This differs from visible-character or UTF-16 limits. |
| Without whitespace | Code points after removing JavaScript whitespace. | Spaces, tabs, newlines, non-breaking spaces, and other JavaScript whitespace are removed for this count only. Your draft is unchanged. |
| Approx. sentences | An ASCII period, question mark, or exclamation-mark heuristic, plus a final nonempty fragment. | Abbreviations, decimals, quotes, and other punctuation conventions can affect the result. It is not grammatical analysis. |
| Paragraphs | Nonempty blocks separated by blank lines, including whitespace-only blank lines. | A single newline stays in the same paragraph. Whitespace-only input has zero paragraphs. |
| Lines | Actual LF, CRLF, or CR-delimited lines. | Visual wrapping is not a newline. A trailing newline adds an empty final line; empty text has zero lines. |
For example, Clear words. Better work. has 4 words, 25 characters, and 2 approximate sentences. A combined emoji such as 👩💻 contains three code points but stays one word group when it has no internal whitespace.
Count a passage separately
Select text inside the editor to see its word and character counts below the draft. A partial selected word counts as a group of its own. The main metric strip, target, and downloads always describe the whole draft. Selection does not replace or remove text.
Reach a goal or check a limit
Enter an optional whole-number target from 1 to 1,000,000. Reach a goal shows words to go, the reached state, and any words above it. Stay under a limit shows remaining words and an explicit over-limit state.
The progress bar stops at 100%; the text result still shows the actual count and any overage. A target never truncates text or blocks typing. Clear the target field to turn it off. Invalid targets are labeled rather than silently corrected.
Adjust the time assumptions
Reading defaults to 200 words per minute; speaking defaults to 130. Choose a whole number from 50–1,000 WPM for reading or 50–400 WPM for speaking. The estimate is word count divided by the selected speed.
Positive estimates below a minute are shown as rounded seconds, with a minimum of one second. Below ten minutes, the display uses one decimal minute where needed; longer estimates use rounded minutes. JSON records seconds to three decimal places. These displays are rounded planning estimates, not predictions of a person's reading ability or delivery.
If a speed or target is invalid, word/character counts still work, but time/target results and the JSON report need valid settings. Fix the highlighted field. TXT/Markdown draft downloads remain available.
Open files and understand the limits
Open one UTF-8 .txt or .md file up to 1 MiB (1,048,576 bytes) and 500,000 decoded UTF-16 input units. Invalid UTF-8, unsupported extensions, and oversized files are rejected without replacing the draft. A nonempty draft asks before replacement.
A UTF-8 signature at the start is removed and reported. Imported CRLF and lone CR newlines become LF in the editor. The browser can also normalize pasted/edited newlines. The app does not promise byte-exact preservation of an imported file's encoding or original newline bytes.
The counter supports up to 500,000 UTF-16 input units, which differ from the code-point character result. If pasted/typed text exceeds that limit, it stays visible and counting pauses. Copy or TXT/Markdown download can keep the over-limit draft; statistics resume after reducing it. There is no silent text truncation.
Markdown is counted as plain source, including formatting markers. PDF, Word, HTML rendering, and binary formats are not parsed.
Copy and download
Copy draft writes the complete editor text to the clipboard after you choose it. If permission is unavailable, the text is selected so you can use your device's copy action.
- Draft · TXT: raw editor text in a UTF-8 plain-text file.
- Draft · Markdown: the same text in a .md file, without an added heading or wrapper.
- Statistics · JSON: version, whole-draft counts, counting definitions, timing settings/seconds, and target status. It contains no draft text or selected passage.
Downloads use fixed names such as word-counter-draft.txt and word-counter-statistics.json. Your browser handles where files are saved. A report is a measurement summary, not a backup of the draft.
Clear, examples, and Undo
Clear empties the editor. Try example and a valid file can replace it, asking first if there is existing text. Undo restores the last six draft replacements/Clear actions while the page is open. It does not undo settings or act as a saved history. Typing undo is the browser editor's own behavior.
App navigation with a nonempty draft offers Open in a new tab, Leave this page, or Cancel. Keep the draft open or copy/download before leaving. The browser may separately warn on reload or tab closure. Those warnings and browser restoration are not backups.
Keyboard, mobile, and appearance
Use Tab to reach controls, Enter/Space for buttons, and normal text-selection/copy shortcuts in the editor. Native disclosures and dialogs support keyboard use; Escape closes a dialog or the mobile menu. Tables scroll within their own region on narrow screens.
Color theme in this app and Appearance in the global footer share Light, Dark, or System across Mycelgrid pages/apps on this host. Each app has its own palettes. Only that allowlisted theme preference is remembered; draft text, targets, and speeds are not stored. With unavailable browser storage, a theme choice lasts on the current page.
If a result surprises you
Compare the actual source text first: headings, Markdown markers, extra pasted content, and selected versus whole-draft scope can change a count. Then compare the counting definitions. If a submission site enforces a limit, use its own count for that submission.
For a reproducible issue, contact us with a short deidentified example, expected behavior, and browser details. Do not send confidential drafts.