Indesign CS6 Total Document Word Count... No?

Question

I left the following comment on a Youtube tutorial explaining how to execute a word count query for an Indesign document ASSUMING your article layout uses a single box of text:
What if an article uses a creative layout with multiple text-boxes? Are you supposed to get out your pocket calculator and add them up one-by-one?
I work for a magazine that publishes short, submission-style testimonials bridged together with staff-generated narrative copy; some of our articles use six or more discreet text-boxes. You REALLY MEAN TO TELL ME that there is NO WAY to yield a TOTAL DOCUMENT WORD COUNT using what is SUPPOSED TO BE the MOST ADVANCED page layout application ON EARTH??
Pardon my exasperation in the above comment, but....Seriously?  
I need someone knowledgeable to please look me in the eyes and tell me, "This is true", before I am going to be able to let myself believe it.
Thank you.
- Exasperated Journalist Slag

Answer 1

Yes, there are ways, just not what you expected.
One approach to counting words in multiple text frames in InDesign is to thread them together. To maintain the pieces of text in their assigned threaded text frames, you can create a paragraph style that starts in the next frame, and assign it to the first paragraph in each text frame. Or, you can break the threads when the count is stable.
If the text frames need to adjust their size to the amount of their content, search Google for terms like "indesign auto resize text frame" without quotes for details.
There was a recent discussion about auto-resizing text frames that mentioned the free AutoFit InDesign plug-in, from typefi.com. Search Google for terms like "indesign typefi autofit" for details.
Search Google for terms like "threading and unthreading InDesign text frames" without quotes, for details.
Search Google for terms like "indesign start paragraph in next frame" without quotes, for details.
You can file a formal feature improvement request here: Wishform.
HTH
Regards,
Peter
Peter Gold
KnowHow ProServices
evanexempt wrote:
I left the following comment on a Youtube tutorial explaining how to execute a word count query for an Indesign document ASSUMING your article layout uses a single box of text:
What if an article uses a creative layout with multiple text-boxes? Are you supposed to get out your pocket calculator and add them up one-by-one?
I work for a magazine that publishes short, submission-style testimonials bridged together with staff-generated narrative copy; some of our articles use six or more discreet text-boxes. You REALLY MEAN TO TELL ME that there is NO WAY to yield a TOTAL DOCUMENT WORD COUNT using what is SUPPOSED TO BE the MOST ADVANCED page layout application ON EARTH??
Pardon my exasperation in the above comment, but....Seriously?  
I need someone knowledgeable to please look me in the eyes and tell me, "This is true", before I am going to be able to let myself believe it.
Thank you.
- Exasperated Journalist Slag