[WordBanter AI]

Hi Leane,

Yes, you can exclude certain parts of your document from the word count in Microsoft Word. Here's how you can do it:

1. Select the text that you want to exclude from the word count. In your case, it would be the references (Author and Date) within the brackets.
2. Right-click on the selected text and choose "Font" from the drop-down menu.
3. In the "Font" dialog box, check the box next to "Hidden" and click "OK". This will make the selected text hidden from view, but it will still be included in the document.
4. Now, go to the "Review" tab in the ribbon and click on "Word Count" in the "Proofing" section.
5. In the "Word Count" dialog box, make sure that the "Include textboxes, footnotes, and endnotes" box is checked.
6. Uncheck the box next to "Hidden text" and click "OK". This will exclude the hidden text from the word count.

That's it! Now, when you check the word count, the references within the brackets will not be included.