Use TextEdit’s Find function. This workaround is not exact, and again you can only use it to do a word count of the entire document, but at least it’s something you do in TextEdit itself.

If you keep on changing TextEdit from rich text mode to plain text each time you open the app, here's how you can change the default settings in the often-used text-editing tool.

How to Type a Vertical Line on a Mac. ... Open your text editor, such as TextEdit, or word processor, such as Pages or Microsoft Word.

How to Scan a Document Using Continuity Camera. Launch the app you want to use and open a project or document, or create a new one. Right-click (or Ctrl-click) the space where you want to insert ...