I know this isn't helpful in your case, but it's of anecdotal interest: the French don't seem to count words for computer-written essays, they measure everything in pages. As do the Italians, I gather. This confused me utterly, but apparently they all know a priori that they're talking about Times New Roman, 12 point, 1.5 spaced, or something, with default margins... Daft if you ask me. I'm more of a Palatino man.