[aitch[_2_]]

Strictly speaking I am not a newbie but this looks the right place to post on
this particular question.

For years I have used Office Pro '97 and recently switched to Office
Standard 2007. I regularly send off stories to editors and for them the Word
Count is critical. On converting 'save as' material to the new format some of
the differences in Word Count are remarkable and puzzling.

For example. 9 stories at random show that the 2007 Version has 2623 words
less than the older count (on around 30000 words). Include in that 4
instances where 2007 has more words than the '97 and therefore 5 show more in
the older word.

One especially striking example is a story that - apparently - has 8255
words in 2007 Words and yet 9799 in '97.

I'm baffled and would appreciate any advice that is offered.

Thank you,

Aitch.