By default, Deckle's Today count is every word you added today, typed or pasted, the way word processors count. If you'd rather Today meant only what you typed, untick Count pasted text toward goals & activity stats in the Stats view, under Draft Totals. Text pasted from another app then stays in your book and your total, but is left out of Today, your goals and your streak.
What Counts as Pasted
- Pasted or dropped in from outside Deckle: a paragraph from Word, Google Docs, an email or a website. Pasted, so left out of Today when the setting is off.
- Copied or cut inside your book and pasted somewhere else in it: not pasted. Moving a passage from one chapter to another isn't new writing, and Today already nets it out, because the words leave one place and arrive in another. Copying a passage to make a second copy of it counts as words written, unless what you copied was pasted text: a copy of a paste is pasted too.
- Typed: always counts, including words you type into the middle of a pasted paragraph.
Deckle marks pasted text as it arrives, invisibly, word by word, and the mark stays on those words for as long as they're in your book. Every count comes from what the document actually holds, so with the setting off:
- Deleting a pasted paragraph takes it off the pasted words. Your typing still counts.
- Undoing the delete (Ctrl+Z, or Cmd+Z on a Mac) puts the paragraph back as pasted. Today doesn't move.
- Moving pasted text to another chapter keeps it pasted.
The mark never appears in your exports. It's only there for the count.
Step-by-Step: Leave Pasted Text Out
- Click Stats on the left-hand bar.
- Find Count pasted text toward goals & activity stats, just under Draft Totals.
- Untick it. Today, your daily goal, your streak, the heatmap and the History breakdown now leave pasted text out.
- Tick it to go back. Pasted text is tracked either way, so you can switch whenever you like without losing anything already recorded.
The setting applies to every tab in Stats and to the Today figure in the Inspector.
When to Turn It Off
- You're moving an existing manuscript into Deckle. Untick it while you bring the book in, so a day of pasting doesn't read as a 40,000-word writing day in your history. Tick it again afterwards if you like.
- You want Today to mean "words I typed today". Leave it off.
- You draft somewhere else and paste chapters in. Leave it on, or your goal never moves.
FAQ
I pasted 50,000 words and Today shot up. Is something wrong?
No. Pasted text counts by default, as it does in a word processor. Untick the setting described above to leave pastes out.
I deleted a pasted paragraph and Today went down. Why?
With pasted text counted, deleting it takes it off Today, the same as typing would. If you'd unticked the setting, Deckle before 1.7.6 also took the deleted paste off your typing, and undoing the delete didn't bring it back. From 1.7.7 the count follows the text itself, so deleting or undoing a paste leaves your typing alone.
If I type at the end of a pasted paragraph, is my typing marked as pasted?
No. The mark is on the pasted words only. Anything you type, anywhere, counts as typed.
Does the setting change my word count total?
No. The total is every word in your manuscript, typed or pasted. The setting only changes what counts as written today.
Related: building a daily writing habit, using Deckle for NaNoWriMo and how many words should I write a day.