A wordle is a word cloud created from words. The more frequent a word appears in the input text the larger its size becomes in the wordle. Indeed, wordle arts have huge educational potential and can be used in various learning activities. For instance, students can use wordle makers to summarize a text or a passage they have read.
They can also use them to quickly scan a document and develop an initial idea of what it is all about before even reading the entire text. Word clouds are also perfect in activities related to creating art and visual displays, gathering students feedback, writing book reviews, visualizing data from tables and surveys, and many more.
There are numerous tools that you can use to make wordle art. Over the years, I reviewed a number of these wordle tools here in educatorestechnology.com and today I am sharing with you four of my favourite wordle word cloud generators. For those of you looking for Wordle.net alternatives, the list below is also a great place to start with.
All of these tools are free or offer free plans. The standard process of generating word clouds comprises three steps:First input your text which can be done by simply typing it right in the word cloud generator, paste it, or import a document file.
Second, edit your wordle. You can for instance edit the layout of your word clouds, change text font, edit background colours, and more. Depending on which wordle maker you choose editing features different from one tool to the other. The third and last step it to generate and share your final wordle in the format of your liking (e.g., SVG, PNG, or JPEG).
The tools I included below are simple and easy to use, ideal for use with students in class. Also, no graphic design knowledge is required to use them. Some of them require a signup others do not. For wordle tools for kids, check out ABCya word cloud generator.
1- Word Art
Formerly Tagul, Word Art is a great wordle cloud art generator for teachers and students. You can easily create professional looking wordle art without the need for any graphic design skills. The process is simple: input your text, click Visualize and then customize your word cloud.
You can type your text or import it from a CSV or Excel file. You can then edit your wordle art the way you want. For instance, click on Shapes to apply a particular shape to your word cloud. Shapes are arranged in multiple categories that include Emoji, Hearts, Money, Nature, Numbers, Christmas, People and many more.
You can also change the font and layout of your text (e.g., horizontal, vertical, negative slope, positive slope, dancing words, crossing words, and more). Click on Styles to change the colour of words, select background colour or leave it transparent, change background image and animation speed, pick a rollover text color and more.
An interesting feature that stood out to me from Word Art is the ability to animate your cloud art. To apply animation to your wordle art click on Animate from the toolbar on top of the tag cloud then hover your mouse over any word to see the beautiful animation.
When your wordle arts are ready you can download them in PNG or JPEG format. To be able to download them in high quality (HQ) formats (i.e., HQ PNG, HG JPEG, HQ SVG vector, HQ PDF vector, HQ HTML animated, HQ Custom) you will need to pay. Word Art offers various one-off purchase plans and packs.
2- WordCloud Generator
Another great tool for making wordles. WordCloud Generator by MonkeyLearn is powered by artificial intelligence allowing you to generate tag clouds with a higher rate of accuracy. Unlike EdWordle, WordCloud Generator provides you with three ways to input your text: you can type it, paste it, or upload a text file.
The maximum number of characters that can be analyzed using this wordle maker is 200000 characters. Using the toolbar on top of the generated word cloud, you can easily change the theme of your wordle, edit text colour, customize background colour with the ability to apply a transparent background, change text font and word quantity, and many more.
Another cool feature in MonkeyLearn is the ability to create word clouds with phrases based on the collocations embedded in your text. Your final wordle can be downloaded in .SVG or .PNG formats. To be able to use MonkeyLearn you need to sign up.
3- EdWordle
EdWordle is a good wordle maker to use with students in class to generate beautiful visual representations of words. The way it works is simple and easy and no signup or software download is required. You simply input your text and and hit submit. Depending on what you want to create, EdWordle lets you edit and customize your wordle art the way you want.
You can, for instance, choose to group similar words, remove stop words, choose how many words you want to show in your wordle and many more. When your word cloud is generated you can further edit its layout, change its background color, add or delete certain words, change text font and more. Note that EdWordle supports only English language.
4- WordItOut
Another wordle art maker which has been around for long time. WordItOut allows you to generate visually attractive word clouds which you can use for a wide variety of educational purposes. It even allows you to print your wordles automatically onto items to create custom gifts.
WordItOut offers a number of interesting features. You can design your word cloud the way you want. You can, for instance, choose the layout of your preference for your wordles, , change colours and fonts, edit sizes, choose which words to display or remove, edit how they appear and on what basis (e.g., frequency, randomness, etc), and many more.
You can use WordItOut to generate wordle art from tables, whole documents, or portions of text. Your final word cloud can easily be shared with others or be embedded in your classroom blog or website using a generate code.
5. Word Tag Cloud
Word Tag Cloud, as its name indicates, is an online word cloud generator that is simple and easy to use. Simply input your text into the text box and click on ‘Create my Cloud’ button. Word Tag Cloud allows you to customize your word cloud as you wish: you can select which words to remove, change colour, number of words, and more. Once your word cloud is complete you can download it in PNG format.
6. WordClouds.com
Wordclouds.com is a free online word cloud generator and tag cloud creator. It works both on desktops and mobile devices. You can use it to create word clouds from a document or a webpage or blog post. You can also enter or type your own text and click to automatically generate a tag cloud.
You can select a shape you like, choose colors and fonts, and select how to draw the words. A unique feature provided by wordclouds.com is the ability to generate clickable word clouds with links (image map). Once your tag clouds are ready, you can save them as images or share them online.
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