Transcending Typical Training: BP2

My favorite Web 2.0 tool of the day is definitely http://www.wordle.net/.

Wordle enables you to create really amazing looking word clouds out of any piece of text, web site, blog or RSS feed you can get your hands on. The process is even so simple that I haven't found a way to break it yet!

Here's how it works:

1) Open the Wordle web site.

2) Click Create your own.

3) Copy the text from a web site, document, blog or RSS feed of your choice.

4) Paste the text, URL, or your del.icio.us user name into the corresponding field.

5) Click the corresponding "OK" or "Submit" button.

That's it! Your word cloud will appear on the screen.

Of course, no techie tool would be complete without options, right?

So, if you're hankerin' for some customizations, you can use the super simple menu options that are located just above your word cloud, to change the language, font, layout and color.

Plus, for those even more adventurous types, Wordle offers an Advanced menu in the top-right corner of the page. There, you can customize your color schemes with your own hex codes, give added weight to certain words so that they appear larger on your cloud, or even build a direct link between your personal site and Wordle so that your visitors can make clouds of their own.

This is tons of fun and takes all the tedious man-hours out of creating a really nice looking graphic. I'm going to use this tool to add word clouds to my presentations, documents, videos and training programs. I'm super excited.

Here are a few of my favorite word clouds that I made from my company's "About Us" page on our web site. It is really awesome how Wordle automatically pulls the most frequently used words and makes them stand out on the cloud by using larger fonts and bolder colors.

Awesome Cloud #1:

Font: Teen
Layout: Mostly Horizontal
Color: Shooting Star