Q:

Viewing the number of words in org or text files in one of the details columns in Emacs Dired

Is there a way to display the number of words in org or text files in one of the details columns in Dired? This would save having to open each file individually and count the words by selecting the whole region and typing M-x =.

A:

Dired generally uses the ls program. On some platforms it use Lisp code instead: library ls-lisp.el.
ls typically does not have any switch that produces a column showing word counts.
So no, Dired is not easily configured to add new, ad hoc columns.  In principle you could tweak or enhance ls-lisp.el, if you use that.  But even that wouldn't be straightforward.

