# Is it possible to count headlines in a Microsoft Word document **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 30, 2018, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-to-count-headlines-in-a-microsoft-word-document/818835 "2018-07-30T22:05:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Wakinyan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wakinyan/32/352_2.png) [@Wakinyan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wakinyan)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2018, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-to-count-headlines-in-a-microsoft-word-document/818835/1 "2018-07-30T22:05:57Z")
I’m working on a dictionary of sorts, on and off for years, and each entry is a Headline in the document. I’m curious how many there are at this point (probably a couple of hundreds, perhaps 300, so I don’t want to count manually). While I can ask Word to count the words, parapgraphs and so on, there seems to no way to have it count my headlines. Anybody knows if it is possible (and reasonably simple, otherwise I just count them myself, damnit)? ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2018, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-to-count-headlines-in-a-microsoft-word-document/818835/2 "2018-07-30T22:21:16Z")
There may be another way to do this, but if you are using styles, you can take the very first example in the style and add the number “1.” in front of it. Then highlight it, go to the styles menu, find the style, then click on “update style to match selection” and it will number each example in that style. Does that work for what you are trying to do? ---
**Author:** ![Wakinyan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wakinyan/32/352_2.png) [@Wakinyan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wakinyan)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2018, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-to-count-headlines-in-a-microsoft-word-document/818835/3 "2018-07-30T22:41:25Z")
It worked! Thank you **wonky**. It’s 272 entries. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![PoppaSan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/poppasan/32/189_2.png) [@PoppaSan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PoppaSan)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2018, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-to-count-headlines-in-a-microsoft-word-document/818835/4 "2018-07-30T23:47:03Z")
> [@Wakinyan](#): > > It worked! Thank you **wonky**. It’s 272 entries. 🙂 28 more to go and then you can go out to recess with the rest of the class. ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2018, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-to-count-headlines-in-a-microsoft-word-document/818835/5 "2018-07-30T23:58:49Z")
> [@Wakinyan](#): > > It worked! Thank you **wonky**. It’s 272 entries. 🙂 Yay! I’m so rarely useful! ---
**Author:** ![Wakinyan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wakinyan/32/352_2.png) [@Wakinyan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wakinyan)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2018, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-to-count-headlines-in-a-microsoft-word-document/818835/6 "2018-07-31T00:16:47Z")
> [@PoppaSan](#): > > 28 more to go and then you can go out to recess with the rest of the class. No classes and no recesses, this is a [private investigation](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KcXUiNHFngI). > [@wonky](#): > > Yay! I’m so rarely useful! I don’t think that is true. 🙂