This code comes from a form I use which has the Field paragraph which contains text to be counted
and numeric field Count
code should be inserted in after update property
'==== code begins
Dim i As Integer
Me![Count] = 0
For i = 1 To 250
Me![Count] = Me![Count] + IIf(Mid$(Me![Paragraph], i, 1) = "" Or Mid$(Me![Paragraph], i, 1) = " ", 0, 1)
Next i
'======= code ends
the for next loop has been set to 250 the nos of characters in the field paragraph
Best of luck
Jimmy