yEdit Portable

Nowadays, synthesizing large pieces of information can boost your confidence level and aid others perceive your ideas in a more efficient manner. However, if you create articles, and have to reach a certain threshold, then counting your words may be a good solution.

Approachable and minimal layout

A simple solution might be yEdit Portable that comes lightweight in means of features, to provide a quick way to set specific targets and keep track of how much you wrote. As the name suggests, the app comes packed with a single executable, which can be easily run directly from an external drive on any computer.
It's wrapped in a clean and self-explanatory interface with a standard menu, containing all the provided functions, and a counter, located at the bottom of the screen. The supported file formats are TXT, RTF, HTML, and XML.

Set the desired word target you need to reach

Compared with other similar processors, which also come with a counter, its features leave much to be desired, as you aren't able to change the color of the text, increase or decrease its size, or font type. Even with the window in full-screen the displayed content is small, but can be grown using the combination CTRL+ mouse wheel. Since not everyone knows this method, a font size function could've been implemented.
You can find and replace terms with other, and paste text directly from the clipboard. From the Words menu, the app lets you enter the target manually, or select it from the predefined values. Once this step is done, at the bottom, you can view the inputted number, the count, and the amount left until 0. In addition, a password may be entered to protect the draft from being modified.

A few last words

To sum it up, yEdit Portable is a useful program that comes in handy when you want to reach a specific word target for your articles and homework projects. An advantage of being portable is the fact that doesn't create registry entries, nor leaves traces behind after being deleted.