Beware: if you spend too much time customizing its output, you may need to install a Thesis-O-Meter-O-Meter....

1. Here's my somewhat complicated Makefile that I use to run Latex on my thesis. It uses a helper program called nowarning. For Thesis-O-Meter purposes, the key thing that the Makefile does is to run the following command automatically whenever an error-free .dvi file is built:

   		wordcount thesis >> thesis.wc
   	

   Install my wordcount script, or if you have a different way to generate a thesis.wc file with the same format, go ahead and use that.

2. Once you've got thesis.wc automatically keeping track of your thesis wordcount history, you just need to install the thesisometer.pl CGI script in a place where your web server can run it. Edit the constants at the top of the script and the padding in set_html_wrapper, and you're all set.

3. What? It's not working right and you want me to help you? Sorry, I've got a thesis to write!