Working with Character counts in a Word 2013 document shows a count of 88,000 for example when you right click on the same word document and look at the details under the file properties it shows 87,328 as an example. 

Below is using a a real document showing the discrepancy 

Inside Word 2013 character count  Next Pic shows Right click file property details of the same document

Interesting Quesion:)

In theory, the Character Count in Windows Explorer gets the same result as the Characters(no spaces) value in Word Count.

However, the operational definitions of how to count the words can occur (namely, what "counts as" a word, and which words "don't count" toward the total) is similar but different. Different word counting programs may give varying results, depending on the text segmentation rule details, and on whether words outside the main text (such as footnotes, endnotes, or hidden text) are counted.

In your story, the Character count in Windows Explorer(28877) is lower than the result in Word count (27286). It's difficult for me to figure out the root exactly duo to:

• the space (any of various whitespace characters, such as a "regular" word space, an em space, or a tab character)
• hyphen or a slash
• Asian/Non-Asian words.

All of them above might be the factors in this case. Hope the info light you.

Cheers,
Tony Chen
Forum Support
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