Does this work on iOS/iPad OS?

[vishae]

I don’t know where to find the word count on the iOS/iPad OS version of Obsidian. There doesn't seem to be a status bar and better word count doesn't show up in the right slidebar (where the core word count plugin shows up).
Is there some settings I need to change?

[colintedford]

Same problem. I don't see a setting, so I assume it's a bug.

[lukeleppan]

Hi thanks for raising the issue. Mobile versions don't have a status bar. So displaying the word count in that way is not possible. However, the statistic collection function is still functional and will detect writing stats over all your devices. In the future you will be able to view your statistics on mobile too.

[colintedford]

Until this feature is officially supported, here is a workaround for iOS/iPadOS 15 (should also work on MacOS Monterey but I haven't tested that yet).

This is my setup, which assumes you want to exclude comments from the count, but only excludes HTML-style comments (which I use for wider compatibility, along with text replacement to make typing them easier). Adjust as needed.

In the Shortcut Launcher community plugin, create a new launcher:
- Command Name: Word count minus comments

• Shortcut name: Obsidian Word Count Minus Comments
• Input Type: Multiple
  • Input Type #1: Selected Text
  • Input Type #2: Entire Document
  • Separator: %%OSL%%

Install my Obsidian Word Count Minus Comments shortcut or make a similar one. Obsidian Word Count Minus Comments does the following:

Split Shortcut Input by Custom %%OSL%%
// The “_” here stands for a blank field in Shortcuts.
Replace (?=<!--)([\s\S]*?)--> with _ in Split Text
Get First Item from Updated Text
Set variable SelectionText to Item from List
Get Last Item from Updated Text
Set variable DocumentText to Item from List
Count Words in SelectionText
Set variable SelectionCount to Count
Count Words in DocumentText
Set variable DocumentCount to Count
// The space between “SelectionCount” and “Document” here stands for a newline in Shortcuts.
Show Selection: SelectionCount Document: DocumentCount

The comment exclusion in my shortcut isn't perfect. If you have malformed comments like

<!--Comment 1, which I forgot to close
<!--
Comment 2
-->

it will count all of those words.

On mobile you can’t pull down to summon the command palette when text is selected, but you can add the command palette button or your new “Word count minus comments” command to the mobile toolbar.