Wordcount help!

Using microsoft office 2013 on laptop and 2010 on desktop

My partner lois is doing several essays for her studies, quotes and references do not count as part of the word-count.
we would like to exclude them from the word-count.
i was hoping there was an easy solution to this but it appears not.
googling finds a lot of questions about this issue.
people are mentioning macros etc. but thats getting too technical.
it needs to be a simple solution so lois can easily implement it. {and me }

i wondered if these brackets { } could be hidden when typed,
then a rule not to count words within those brackets.
so all lois has to do is remember to open and close the brackets when adding quotes and ref's
is this possible or does anyone else know of a easier better way.

at the moment she has to highlight all her quotes and refs and subtract the highlighted word-count from the overall word-count.
painstaking to say the least when she has a 7000 word essay to do.

i know you could use a text box and it not count the words within the box, but this is a nuisance for lois to insert text boxes and would make the essay look untidy with boxes all over the place.

thanks lee, we had a good browse for solutions and there seems to be nothing simple,
except for going through the document highlighting the quotes and refs and then it gives a tally of the highlighted words, then that needs subtracting from the overall count, its probably the easiest way for lois, as she gets it,

i would have thought after all the office editions they have produced that office 2013 would have more extensive wordcount settings
there should be by now .

al those students who have to sit adding and subtracting word counts when they could be doing more research ,
im surprised that there isnt a highlighted field that can be added so words in the field get excluded from the count. but the field doesn't show when printed
it could be an exclude from wordcount button on the ribbon that gives then an area to type in or paste ,insert text.

you would think it would be an available feature after 15 versions not including mac versions
maybe someone from MST will see my thread and be inspired ...
and claim my idea as his own and get a big promotion and a big car and big house with no money worries and get a trophy wife and live happily ever after, the swine,
im a pc and IT WAS MY IDEA

thats better, now where was i...