The Word Count toolbar is really useful if you want to keep count of things as you work. Rather than going to the Word Count command every time, just open the toolbar.

In the toolbar, you use the drop-down list to choose which element—words, lines, pages—you want to count, and then click Recount whenever you want to see what the latest total is. If you want to see the total of a different element, use the drop-down list again.

The toolbar will use the current setting in the Word Count dialog box for including footnotes and endnotes.

The Word Count toolbar can be opened by clicking Show Toolbar in the Word Count dialog box, or from the Toolbars menu (View menu).