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Wordalizer 2015

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We’ve written a few times here about Marc Autret’s cool Wordalizer script that allows you to build word clouds right in InDesign. And now Wordalizer has been updated for 2015 with several handy new features.

Wordalizer now includes options for four new cloud shapes (bringing the total number of shapes to 12):

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38 new color themes:

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the ability to detect a word list (including weights that determine word sizing) from text in an InDesign document:

Top 10 U.S. Google Searches in 2014

Top 10 U.S. Google Searches in 2014

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and a new control that allows you to make word clouds that fit a specific space in your layouts by choosing a width-to-height ratio

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Wordalizer Pro (Mac and Win, CS4-CC 2014) sells for €29.00, and you can of course download a try out version to get the hang of it and decide if it’s worth the investment.

Editor in Chief of CreativePro. Instructor at LinkedIn Learning with courses on InDesign, Illustrator, Photoshop, GIMP, Inkscape, and Affinity Publisher. Co-author of The Photoshop Visual Quickstart Guide with Nigel French.
  • A writer’s budget means I have to be frugal, but I can see the value of this script. It could be a marvelous way to counter the dullness of line after line of text in most books. Simply insert a carefully tuned version of this at the start of each chapter to describe visually what that chapter is about.

    Illustrations:

    FICTION: Put the stress on characters, and it’d suggest how often a particular character appears in a chapter. A big “John” means he’s the lead character in that chapter.

    NON-FICTION: For history or biography, putting the stress on people, places or events would illustrate what gets the most coverage in each particular chapter. You see that above with word lists about current events.

    It’s be similar to the old books that contain a summary of a chapters events in the opening paragraph, i.e. “John visits London. Sally rides into Oxford. Jack inherits 10,000 pounds.” But in this case, you’re not giving away a chapter’s plot, just its emphasis.

    It’s perhaps an answer to a question that’s troubled me for the last couple of years. Several of my recent books have been about when I worked at Seattle Children’s Hospital. It is very easy to find stock photos of cute, hospitalized children. You can see the results by checking out the samples on Amazon or Apple for My Nights with Leukemia. Lots and lots of cute kids. Pretty nurses too.

    But other topics don’t lend themselves as well to stock photo services, especially fiction or long-ago historical events. For those, Wordalizer might offer an alternative way to brighten up otherwise dull text. If it has words, Wordalizer can create a visual for it. That’s handy.

    The colors would be especially useful in ebooks. Ebooks allow the use of glorious color and I hate to see any ability of a media lost. And no, you can’t colorized words. Only the darker versions of a few colors (i.e. red or blue) are readable in color. No one wants to read text in yellow or pink. There’s not enough contrast to the white backdrop.

    Various shapes should also be great for livening up children’s books. In the future, the developer might want to add shapes of animals, people and common items such as buildings, airplanes trains, or cars. A chapter about a train trip, could open with words in the shape of a train. That’d be more interesting than mere geographic shapes. He might even want to add the ability to import a user-chosen shape.

    Wordalizer aids a worthy goal. Books should never be dull, least of all books for children. I wish the developer every success and, when I have a book needing what it offers, I’ll pick up a copy and experiment.

    –Michael W. Perry, Inkling Books

  • Masood Ahmad says:

    Nice improvement to the original Wordalizer. Keep it up Mike.

  • Erica says:

    Can you create custom shapes in Wordalizer?

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