The status bar at the bottom of your document window can display different types of information about your text. You can display the row and column in which your cursor is currently located, the number of words in the text, or the number of characters (includes letters, numbers, punctuation marks) with or without spaces. “Spaces” here includes not only the blank space between words, but also other invisible characters such as a line break, tab, etc.

When you right-click on the status bar, you will open the context menu, in which you can choose which information you would like to see. This allows you to quickly switch between display options.

The information you can choose to display in the status bar

Double-clicking on the context menu will open the “Status Bar” settings dialog.

You can choose to display a progress bar

There are also options to show a progress bar in the status bar itself, as well as a due date for the document you are currently working on.

Status Bar Settings

In “Preferences” → “Appearance” → “Status Bar,” you can choose which elements you would like displayed in the status bar at the bottom of the window and access other settings.

Status bar settings for progress and targets display

“Target Settings” allows you to set targets for yourself and monitor your progress in the status bar.

The colors you choose here show how much progress you have made already and how much is remaining to reach your goal.

The “Goal Tolerance” means that you don’t have to reach your goal to the word, but rather need to be within the range of plus or minus 10 percent. For example, if you have set a goal of 6,000 words, you should be within the range of 5,400 to 6,600 words and you will see the color you have chosen for “Within tolerance.”

There is also a color for how much text “exceeds” your goal. This is useful if you are working on a project with a word or character maximum.

You can choose to show progress for your text as a whole, for the daily goal and for the deadline in the progress bar.