Sunday, May 3, 2009

Word Clouds

Do you like this Kikay word clouds? Wondering how you can make one?
Let me show you how. You can create word clouds from http://wordle.net/. But before you click on the mouse and leave my blog, read my tips below. Trust me it will save you time and frustration.
Here are my notes:
(1) After typing a bunch of text, copy the words. It's because when you go back to this box to create again, your text will not be there anymore. Instead of typing the bunch of text again, you can just re-paste it.
(2) If you want a certain text to be more prominent, type it more fequently. For example, if you want your name to appear larger than your surname, type your name 3 times and your surname once.
(3) If you want to keep words together, use the tilde character which is this:~. For example, if you want to keep "i love you", type "i~love~you".
(4) Play around with the fonts, layout and color but don't make the mistake of clicking on the back button or 'create' especially if you already like what you see. It will disappear once you go back to create.
(5) If you want to save the word clouds, check that the screen is showing you the word clouds in full. Whatever is on the screen at the time of taking the screenshot is what will be copied so make sure the word clouds is in the middle of your screen. To save, press 'PrtScn (for print screen). This button is normally found on the top right hand corner of your keyboard.
(6) If you are using a PC, open the application 'Paint'. Click on Start > All Programs > Accessories > Paint. For Mac users, you should have an equivalent of this.
(7) Go to Edit then Paste. Save your file as JPG or BMP.
(8) Now go to your photo editing application to crop the picture (cut out the picture to leave just the word clouds).

Voila! you now have word clouds you can put in your cards, blog, website, etc.
Have fun and Enjoy!

1 comment:

Michele Mallory-Davidson said...

Those are too cute! Think I'll have to go try that out! Thanks!

~Michele from "It's in the Bag!"