What is a word cloud?

A word cloud sizes each label according to its value - a bigger number means bigger text - with color also tracking that same value on a gradient from low to high. It's a fast way to spot which terms dominate a set of labeled values, like top search terms, tags, or categories, without reading a table of numbers.

Does a word cloud automatically count how often words appear in my text?

No. A word cloud does not read free text or tokenize sentences - it takes whatever value you assign to the measure field and sizes each label by that number directly. If you want word size to reflect how often a term appears, you need to assign a measure that already represents that count - for example, counting rows grouped by a tag or keyword field - not a paragraph of unstructured text.

Can words be rotated or angled?

No. Every word renders fully horizontal - rotation is fixed off for this chart type, with no setting to change it. This is a deliberate choice for readability, not a missing feature; angled text in a word cloud is a common visual style elsewhere, but isn't available here.

What determines a word's color?

Color follows the same value that determines size, interpolated along a gradient between Start Color (lowest value) and End Color (highest value) in Word Cloud Styles. It is not random or categorical - two words with similar values will also have similar colors, reinforcing size rather than adding a separate dimension of meaning.

Can I change the cloud's overall shape or its width and height within the chart?

The outline Shape is configurable - Circle, Cardioid, Diamond, Triangle, Pentagon, or Star - and changes how words are packed within that boundary. The cloud's width and height as a percentage of the chart area, and the spacing grid between words, are fixed defaults with no control in the formatting panel.

When should I use a word cloud instead of a pie chart or bar chart?

Use a word cloud when the label text itself is the point of interest and you want size to communicate relative weight at a glance, with many labels shown at once. Use a bar chart when precise comparison between values matters more than visual texture - bars are far easier to read accurately than word sizes, especially for values that are close to each other.

Word Cloud | Edilitics Docs

Size each label by its value, with color tracking the same scale. Best for at-a-glance term frequency, not for counting words in free text automatically.

A word cloud sizes each label according to its value, with color tracking that same value on a gradient. Drop exactly one categorical or date field into Column - its values become the words - and exactly one numeric field into Row to set each word's size. Use it when the label text itself is worth seeing large, and many distinct values need to be shown at once without a table.

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When to Use

A word cloud trades precision for texture: it's not for reading exact numbers, it's for letting a handful of dominant terms visually jump out of a crowd of smaller ones - top search queries, most-used tags, most-mentioned categories. The bigger the assigned value, the bigger and more prominent the word appears, with color reinforcing the same signal.

This chart does not read or count words in free text. A word cloud sizes labels by whatever number is in the measure field - it doesn't tokenize sentences or tally word occurrences on its own. To show genuine word frequency, assign a measure that already counts occurrences (for example, a count of rows grouped by a tag or keyword field), not a column of unstructured paragraphs.

Switch to a different chart when:

You need to read exact values accurately, not just relative size - use Horizontal Bar
Your text field needs actual word-frequency counting from free text, which this chart doesn't perform - pre-aggregate that count first, then chart the result
You're showing parts of a single whole, not many independent label-value pairs - use a Pie Chart

Scenario	Dimension (Column)	Measure (Row)
Most common support ticket tags	Tag	Count of tickets
Top search queries by volume	Search term	Search count
Most-used product feature names	Feature name	Usage count
Survey response categories by frequency	Response category	Response count
Highest-revenue product names	Product name	Revenue

Required Inputs

Field	Type	Count
Dimension (Words)	Categorical or Date	Exactly 1
Measure (Size)	Numeric	Exactly 1

For step-by-step build instructions, see Build Your First Chart.

Formatting Options

The Format tab unlocks after both fields are assigned.

Style

Use the chart title to state what the words represent, since the cloud itself shows no axis labels for context.

Control	What it does
Show Chart Title	Shows or hides the title.
Enter Chart Title	Title text. Maximum 50 characters.
Font family	Font applied to the title.
Font size	5 to 30.
Bold / Italic	Weight and style.
Alignment	Left, center, or right within the chart container.

Word Cloud Styles covers the cloud's outline shape, sizing, and color gradient - the controls available for this chart type, with several layout details fixed and not exposed here.

Control	What it does
Shape	Circle, Cardioid, Diamond, Triangle, Triangle (Inverted), Pentagon, or Star. The boundary words are packed within.
Min Size (font px)	Smallest word's font size, for the lowest value in the data.
Max Size (font px)	Largest word's font size, for the highest value in the data.
Animate Layout	Turns the cloud's packing animation on or off when the chart first renders.
Bold / Italic	Weight and style applied to all words.
Text Case	Uppercase, lowercase, capitalize, or none.
Font Family	Typeface for all words.
Start Color / End Color	The gradient's two ends - Start Color for the lowest value, End Color for the highest. Every word's color is interpolated between them based on its own value.

Rotation is fixed off - every word always renders horizontal, with no setting to angle them. The cloud's width and height within the chart, and the spacing grid between words, are also fixed defaults rather than configurable settings.

The legend lists each word by name, useful as a reference list separate from the visual sizing.

Control	What it does
Show Legends	Shows or hides the legend entirely.
Vertical Position / Horizontal Position	Where the legend sits within the chart area.
Show Name	Default (always visible) or On Hover (names appear only while hovering a word). Defaults to On Hover.
Orientation	Horizontal or vertical layout of legend items.
Item Gap	Spacing between legend entries.
Font Size / Color	Styling for the legend text.

Interactivity

The tooltip appears on hover over a word, showing its name and value.

Control	What it does
Show Tooltip	Shows or hides the tooltip entirely.
Header / value text styling	Font, size, and color for the name and value lines shown in the tooltip.

Animation controls the cloud's transition when the chart first renders or the data changes, separate from the Animate Layout toggle in Word Cloud Styles, which controls the packing animation specifically.

Control	What it does
Enable Animation	Turns the transition animation on or off.
Duration	How long the transition takes.
Delay	How long the transition waits before starting.
Easing Function	The transition curve.

Emphasis controls the visual response when hovering a word - a scale-up effect and a drop shadow. Off by default.

Control	What it does
Show Emphasis	Turns hover effects on.
Focus Type	Item, Series, or None.
Enable Scale	Scales the hovered word up slightly.
Scale Size	1.0x to 2.0x.
Shadow Blur / Color / Offset X / Offset Y	Drop shadow styling on the hovered word.
Border Width	Border added around the hovered word.

Enable the Toolbox when viewers need to export the chart or inspect its underlying data.

Control	What it does
Show Toolbox	Shows or hides the toolbox icon bar.
Save as Image	Adds a download icon that saves the chart as a PNG.
Data View	Adds an icon that opens the underlying data table in a separate view.

Best Practices

Pre-aggregate to a real frequency count if that's what you want to show. This chart sizes words by whatever number is in the measure field, with no text-mining or tokenization behind it. If the goal is genuine word frequency, the count needs to already exist as a field or aggregation before the data reaches the chart.

Keep the word list short enough that the smallest words stay legible. A word cloud with 100 distinct values will pack many words down near Min Size, where they become difficult to read. Filter to the most relevant or highest-value terms rather than showing every possible label.

Don't rely on a word cloud for precise comparison. Size differences are easy to misjudge, especially between values that are close together. If a viewer needs to know exactly how much bigger one term is than another, pair the cloud with a table or switch to a bar chart instead.

Choose Start and End colors with enough contrast to reinforce size, not fight it. Since color and size both track the same value, a low-contrast gradient makes the chart rely on size alone; a clear gradient gives viewers two reinforcing signals instead of one.

Remember rotation isn't available before reaching for a workaround. If a specific angled-text look is required for a presentation, that styling isn't achievable through this chart's formatting panel - plan around the fixed horizontal layout rather than expecting a rotation setting that doesn't exist.

FAQs

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Word Cloud