There are a few plug ins available to count chars entered into the FCKeditor. They are listed in the plug-ins page at www.fckeditor.net

We are not including external plug-ins into the install package because we cannot guaranty future compatibility of those plug ins (Most of them are not being actively developed).

You can install them if you want/need them, but your will need to re-configure the FCKeditor after each upgrade.

Couldn't  you implement your own count chars function for DNN?
And then make it available through the custom editor settings.

We've had a question from one of our customers to, to limit the amount of text for each HTML/Text module.
It would look like a nice new feature for the editor.

Here is a similar function from another editor:

 <script type="text/javascript" language="javascript">
 var _lastValue="";
 
 function GetTextArea() {
  return document.forms["form1"].elements["filecomment"];
 }
 
 window.onload=function WindowLoad(event) {
  //get pointer to text control:
  var objTextArea=GetTextArea();
  
  //check if exists:
  if (!objTextArea) {
    ].value);
  
  //check if exceeded:
  if (strValue.length >= maxChars) {
   if (_lastValue.length != strValue.length) {
    //crop to maximum size:
    objTextArea.value = strValue.substr(0, maxChars);
   }
   strValue=objTextArea.value;
  }
  
  //store last value:
  _lastValue = strValue;
  
  //set container text:
  objSpan.innerHTML = (maxChars-strValue.length)+" character to go....";
 }
 
 function TextareaPaste(event)
 {
  //initiate keypress and keyup events:
  var s1=setTimeout("TextareaKeyPress();", 100);
  var s2=setTimeout("TextareaKeyUp();", 500);
 }
 
 function InArray(arr, key) {
  for (var i=0; i<arr.length; i++) {
   if (arr[i] == key)
    return true;
  }
  return false;
 }
 </script>

And then:

    <textarea name="comment" cols="40" rows="4" MaxChars="150"></textarea>
  <br />
   <span id="comment_charsCount">150 characters to go...</span>