Make a word cloud in 5 clicks

Reblogged with permission from Patient Opinion UK.

I was helping someone from a healthwatch to use Patient Opinion's subscriber features today, and I found myself showing her how to make a word cloud.

"Hey, that's really cool", she said. And it was. So I thought I'd share it with you, in case you don't know just how cool it is.

So, let's suppose you want to make a word cloud based on the last 100 stories in your subscription. (What's a word cloud? You'll see in a moment.)

1: Log into your subscription

You already know how to do that!

2: Go to the search page

To get to the search page, just click the "Search" button near the top of the page, without anything in the search box.

3: Save your search as...

On the search page you'll see your current search, which includes all stories in your subscription.

Of course, if you want you could filter it down a bit by adding a few search terms, before you create the visualisation.

Once you are ready, click the "Save my search as..." button.

4: Select the Visualisation tab

You can save your search as various things. We want a word cloud, so we'll select the Visualisation tab.

And, to make the magic happen, just click "Preview word cloud":

5: Share your visualisation

It might be enough for you just to see the word cloud yourself. Or you might want to go back, refine your search, and make a better word cloud. (You can use the "Back to search results" button below the word cloud if you do.)

Once you are happy with the word cloud, you can save and share it, if you like.

To do so, give it a name and a description, add your signature, and click "Save and share". We'll publish your word cloud and give you a link to it, which you can share with whoever you like.

If you forget the link, you can always find it again on your saved things page, in the Visualisations tab.

Now let's see... I make that a minimum of 5 clicks to create your first word cloud. And is that really cool? Yes, I think it is.