How can I check the word count of selected text in Notepad++?

This can be achieved with the TextFX plugin for Notepad++.

1. Install the plugin by clicking Plugins -> Plugin Manager -> Show Plugin Manager
2. Check TextFX Characters in the list of available plugins and click Install (Notepad++ will need to restart to finish the installation)
3. After installation finishes, you can view the word count for the selected text by going to the TextFX menu, selecting TextFX Tools and finally Word Count:

In Notepad++ you can get the words count in two ways

1. In menu, View => summary
2. In status bar, Double click on the length: <some_number>, line : <some_number> then you can see words count in a pop up windows

Is it possible to view the word count for a selected text?

• Menu "Search" > "Mark".

• Set "Find what" to \<\w+\>.

• Enable "In selection".

• Click "Mark All".

• The bottom of the dialog will update with "Mark: n matches.

• Click "Clear all marks" to remove the marks.

Example:

The TextFX plugin mentioned in the accepted answer is still not available in the 64bit version of Notepad++, which in 2021 is the version everybody will be using.

There is a trivial solution to counting all the words in a selected region, which does not involve plugins and does not require one to remember regex syntax.

1. One can select the desired text
2. Copy it with Ctrl+C
3. Create a new tab with Ctrl+N
4. Paste the selected text with Ctrl+V
5. Count all the words on that tab with the View/Summary... menu
6. Or double click on the length:... line:... field on the status bar

This requires three extra keystrokes but is pretty quick and simple