Non-whitespace character count

Use case or problem

Usage in English: Many academic document submissions have a character limit excluding newline and spaces.

Usage in other languages: Counting characters with whitespace characters in other languages can lead to errors (see the request on the obsidian subreddit)

Proposed solution

Add a simple toggle option to “word counter” which

exclude white-space in character count

Current workaround (optional)

My current workaround is to open the md file in kate (kde’s editor) which has a character counter or copy the text to libreoffice write which gives with and without whitespace character count.

As i cannot edit the post: Correction I could not find a way to get this using ‘file info pane’ plugin. So, no obsidian solution exists for this.

I edited it for you. If you’re active in the forum for a while you’ll gain the ability to edit; it’s restricted to prevent certain spam techniques.

As a potential workaround (?), in the meantime, there’s the plugin Novel word count

Although I didn’t test, from its documentation, it seems to have “advanced options” for the words and characters count :blush:

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I tested the ‘Novel Word Count’ and it has the advanced option to exclude whitespace from character count for language compatibility, but this doesn’t work as the replacement for the FR.

This gives a very cluttered look. It shows “words|characters” next to the file name in the folder view sidebar, not in the bottom right corner like the word counter.

I never said it was or would be :wink: :blush:
I just mentioned it as a potential workaround (while waiting) … nothing much more :blush:

I agree you mentioned it as a workaround. Sorry, if my comment came across too strong! thanks for the suggestion :slight_smile:

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