diff --git a/lib/ChangeLog b/lib/ChangeLog
index 6882acb8dc..10dfcc80e4 100644
--- a/lib/ChangeLog
+++ b/lib/ChangeLog
@@ -1,3 +1,7 @@
+2004-12-22  Jean-Marc Lasgouttes  <lasgouttes@lyx.org>
+
+	* ui/stdmenus.ui: add entry for words-count
+
 2004-12-17  Jürgen Spitzmüller  <j.spitzmueller@gmx.de>
 
 	* Makefile.am: honor the textrm_*.xpm renaming.
diff --git a/lib/ui/stdmenus.ui b/lib/ui/stdmenus.ui
index ed5b41a0ed..8228f6a7bb 100644
--- a/lib/ui/stdmenus.ui
+++ b/lib/ui/stdmenus.ui
@@ -402,6 +402,7 @@ Menuset
 	Menu "tools"
 		Item "Spellchecker...|S" "dialog-show spellchecker"
 		OptItem "Thesaurus...|T" "thesaurus-entry"
+		Item "Count Words|W" "words-count"
 		OptItem "Check TeX|h" "buffer-chktex"
 		Item "TeX Information...|I" "dialog-show texinfo"
 		Separator
diff --git a/src/BufferView_pimpl.C b/src/BufferView_pimpl.C
index 35298307d7..08d3e03a6e 100644
--- a/src/BufferView_pimpl.C
+++ b/src/BufferView_pimpl.C
@@ -958,6 +958,7 @@ FuncStatus BufferView::Pimpl::getStatus(FuncRequest const & cmd)
 	case LFUN_MARK_ON:
 	case LFUN_SETMARK:
 	case LFUN_CENTER:
+	case LFUN_WORDS_COUNT:
 		flag.enabled(true);
 		break;
 		
@@ -1130,6 +1131,35 @@ bool BufferView::Pimpl::dispatch(FuncRequest const & cmd)
 		bv_->center();
 		break;
 
+	case LFUN_WORDS_COUNT: {
+		DocIterator from, to;
+		if (cur.selection()) {
+			from = cur.selectionBegin();
+			to = cur.selectionEnd();
+		} else {
+			from = doc_iterator_begin(bv_->buffer()->inset());
+			to = doc_iterator_end(bv_->buffer()->inset());
+		}
+		int const count = countWords(from, to);
+		string message;
+		if (count != 1) {
+			if (cur.selection())
+				message = bformat(_("%1$s words in selection."),
+					  tostr(count));
+				else
+					message = bformat(_("%1$s words in document."), 
+							  tostr(count));
+		}
+		else {
+			if (cur.selection())
+				message = _("One word in selection.");
+			else			
+				message = _("One word in document.");
+		}
+
+		Alert::information(_("Count words"), message);
+	}
+		break;
 	default:
 		return false;
 	}
diff --git a/src/ChangeLog b/src/ChangeLog
index 79a8c5dd8a..35c1287325 100644
--- a/src/ChangeLog
+++ b/src/ChangeLog
@@ -1,3 +1,14 @@
+2004-12-22  Jean-Marc Lasgouttes  <lasgouttes@lyx.org>
+
+	* buffer_funcs.C (countWords): new function. Counts words between
+	two iterators.
+
+	* BufferView_pimpl.C (getStatus, dispatch): handle
+	LFUN_WORDS_COUNT.
+
+	* LyXAction.C (init): 
+	* lfuns.h: add LFUN_WORDS_COUNT.
+
 2004-12-19  Angus Leeming  <leeming@lyx.org>
 
 	* buffer.C (save): s/slashify_path/internal_path/.
diff --git a/src/LyXAction.C b/src/LyXAction.C
index e4b582b128..a5ea3dcfe6 100644
--- a/src/LyXAction.C
+++ b/src/LyXAction.C
@@ -339,6 +339,7 @@ void LyXAction::init()
 		{ LFUN_INSET_REFRESH, "", Noop },
 		{ LFUN_NEXTBUFFER, "buffer-next", ReadOnly },
 		{ LFUN_PREVIOUSBUFFER, "buffer-previous", ReadOnly },
+		{ LFUN_WORDS_COUNT, "words-count", ReadOnly },
 		{ LFUN_NOACTION, "", Noop }
 	};
 
diff --git a/src/buffer_funcs.C b/src/buffer_funcs.C
index 2f41213184..5d28338ac9 100644
--- a/src/buffer_funcs.C
+++ b/src/buffer_funcs.C
@@ -17,6 +17,7 @@
 #include "buffer.h"
 #include "bufferlist.h"
 #include "bufferparams.h"
+#include "dociterator.h"
 #include "errorlist.h"
 #include "gettext.h"
 #include "LaTeX.h"
@@ -228,3 +229,26 @@ string const BufferFormat(Buffer const & buffer)
 	else
 		return "latex";
 }
+
+
+int countWords(DocIterator const & from, DocIterator const & to)
+{
+	int count = 0;
+	bool inword = false;
+	for (DocIterator dit = from ; dit != to ; dit.forwardPos()) {
+		// Copied and adapted from isLetter() in ControlSpellChecker
+		if (dit.inTexted()
+		    && dit.pos() != dit.lastpos()
+		    && dit.paragraph().isLetter(dit.pos())
+		    && !isDeletedText(dit.paragraph(), dit.pos())) {
+			if (!inword) {
+				++count;
+				inword = true;
+			}
+		} else if (inword)
+			inword = false;
+	}
+
+	return count;
+}
+
diff --git a/src/buffer_funcs.h b/src/buffer_funcs.h
index 7d741eaf37..db433142ec 100644
--- a/src/buffer_funcs.h
+++ b/src/buffer_funcs.h
@@ -16,8 +16,9 @@
 
 
 class Buffer;
-class TeXErrors;
+class DocIterator;
 class ErrorList;
+class TeXErrors;
 
 /**
  *  Loads a LyX file \c filename into \c Buffer
@@ -38,4 +39,8 @@ void bufferErrors(Buffer const &, TeXErrors const &);
 ///
 void bufferErrors(Buffer const &, ErrorList const &);
 
+/// Count the number of words in the text between these two iterators
+int countWords(DocIterator const & from, DocIterator const & to);
+
+
 #endif // BUFFER_FUNCS_H
diff --git a/src/lfuns.h b/src/lfuns.h
index d614278d5f..6b0341f122 100644
--- a/src/lfuns.h
+++ b/src/lfuns.h
@@ -352,6 +352,8 @@ enum kb_action {
 	LFUN_INSET_REFRESH,
 	LFUN_NEXTBUFFER,
 	LFUN_PREVIOUSBUFFER,
+	// 270
+	LFUN_WORDS_COUNT,
 
 	LFUN_LASTACTION                  // end of the table
 };
diff --git a/status b/status
index 4bf2e30683..a84652ab56 100644
--- a/status
+++ b/status
@@ -79,3 +79,5 @@ Move as much code as possible from the Menu frontends to the Backend.
 
 (xforms): replace the Combox code with a native xforms widget, for eventual
 inclusion in the xforms library itself.
+
+Add a basic Word Count feature.