Wordalizer 2015 is out!
January 06, 2015 | Wordalizer | en | fr
Wordalizer 2015 (v. 1.508) is finally available at no additional cost—update is free for all licensed users. Major additions and improvements have been done so that you can design the greatest word clouds ever from within InDesign. Easily import weighted word lists, apply new shapes and color themes, setup the width/height ratio of the whole artwork! But that's just part of the story:
New Features in version 1.508
Here are some of the new key features:
• New design and enhanced readability of the Cloud panel.
• Four new shapes: Triangle, Reversed Triangle, Losange, and Astroid.
• New option in the advanced settings panel: “Detect word list” (refer to the manual for details).
• 38 new color themes:
• InDesign CS4, CS5, CS5.5, CS6, CC and CC 2014 compatible, on Mac OS and Windows platforms.
…and so much more!
Sample clouds
Many word clouds have been already posted here, and here, based on the previous versions. Here are new examples:
Give it a try!
Wordalizer's TRY version offers all the features of the PRO release, except it automatically inserts the word Wordalizer. If you need to use the plug-in in production, consider to purchase a PRO version license.
• Installation. — The TRY and PRO versions of Wordalizer are both delivered in the jsx format. You simply need to put the file in your Scripts Panel folder. The script is instantly available in the InDesign Scripts panel.
• Note. — If you cannot find the location of your Scripts Panel folder, run InDesign and display the Scripts panel (Window > Automation > Scripts or Window > Utilities > Scripts). Then right-click the User folder and, in the fly-out menu, pick Reveal in Finder (Mac OS) or Reveal in Explorer (Windows). If there is not already a Scripts Panel subfolder within the revealed Scripts folder, create here a new folder named Scripts Panel.
Notice, Acknowledgements
Wordalizer has a long story. The seminal idea came from Jonathan Feinberg, who created the applet Wordle. Details on how I implemented a similar algorithm in ExtendScript are still available in my original post.
My very special thanks to Theunis de Jong (aka Jongware), Dominique Chiron (doopix.com) and Jean-Christophe Courte (urbanbike.com). I also wish to thank the people who have helped improve and promote this product, in no particular order: Klaus Nordby, David Blatner, Stéphane Baril (Adobe France), Loïc Aigon (Ozalto), Laurent Tournier (Indigrep), Cécile Mazin (ActuaLitté), Alexander Charchar (Smashing Magazine), Rinniee Ginsburg, Ingo Wilsinger, Jan Mirus—not forgetting those graphic designers, trainers, authors, and InDesign gurus who have all contributed at some level to the success of Wordalizer: Sandee Cohen and Diane Burns (authors of “Digital Publishing with Adobe InDesign”), Pariah Burke, Erica Gamet, Haeme Ulrich, Khaled Galal, Jennifer Blatz, Phillip Southgate and so many others!
Comments
You might want to add at least one more detail about how it works. What determines the range over which it creates a word list? Is it an entire document? Is it a story within that document? Can it be set to scan for words up to the next appearance of a particular style?
The last would be best, since it would allow word clouds to be created easily for every chapter in a book independent of how that book is divided.
Also, for those doing children's books, you might want to add to these geometric shapes, those of common objects, animals and people. A chapter about a bunny could open with a word cloud shaped like a bunny. One about a train trip could use a train-shaped word cloud. Kids would love that.
--Michael W. Perry, co-author of Lily's Ride
Hi Michael,
[Sorry for the delay. As you know we've had hard days in France…]
> What determines the range over which it creates a word
> list? Is it an entire document? Is it a story within that
> document? Can it be set to scan for words up to the next
> appearance of a particular style?
The SOURCE panel allows you to select either an entire book, the active document, or the clipboard. So indeed Wordalizer doesn't provide the same 'granularity' as e.g. IndexMatic in that field. I realize it could be useful at a minimum to add the active (=selected) Story as a source, so that one can easily create a cloud for each chapter.
In the meantime a workaround exists and doesn't seem very tedious to me: just select the text you need to 'wordalize' in your document, copy (Cmd C), then run Wordalizer and select the Clipboard source.
On filtering by style, well, I have no practical solution so far. (Except for those using IndexMatic who can then extract items and frequency using the Hit button, the resulting plain text report being easy to convert into a weighted word list.)
> Also, for those doing children's books, you might want to
> add to these geometric shapes, those of common objects,
> animals and people.
Yep, I read this 'feature request' in the comment you've already posted—thanks a lot for your nice words, by the way—at http://indesignsecrets.com/wordaliz...
To be honest, that is not easy to implement. Shapes in Wordalizer are not as pliable as those we can found in web applets that produce word clouds. The underlying technology is different—here we must rely on InDesign ExtendScript own tools—and has serious limitations in terms of performance and calculation time.
So I can not promise anything but I keep that gamble in mind.
Best regards,
Marc
Je n'avais pas encore essayé Wordalizer dans cette nouvelle mouture... J'avais testé il y a quelques années (déjà) les premières versions, mais je découvre avec la version 2015 la maturité de l'appli (et celle de son auteur sans aucun doute !) : l'interface est sublime, fonctionnelle, et anticipe encore une fois toutes les questions qui nous viennent à l'esprit.
Comment Wordalizer peut-il actualiser un nuage de mots en récupérant la liste de termes, alors que tout est vectorisé, c'est là une question qui, si elle ne m’empêche pas de dormir, me turlupine et me rend admiratif de votre génie à nouveau (j'imagine une petite boite cachée avec la liste des termes que le script va appeler au lancement... en pur ignorant du scripting que je suis).
Une petite question : je tente de contraindre le nuage de mots dans un format prédéfini, élément d'une maquette de couv'. Celui-ci mesure (par exemple) 60mm par 150mm. En le positionnant au-dessus d'une première version d'un nuage de mots, en sélectionnant le tout (nuage de mots + mon rectangle de 60x150), je lance le script (je patiente quelques secondes : je suis en version Try, et une fois sur deux j'oublie de valider la petite fenêtre invitant à passer à la version pro!), et je constate que mon rectangle disparait (je me dis "yes, c'est tout bon !"), et mon nuage de mots apparait. Il n'a cependant pas le format 60x150...
Je pense que le rapport renseigné dans la forme sélectionnée (le carré pour mon cas) ainsi que la liste elle-même de termes à en-nuager y est pour quelque chose... sans doute est-ce difficile, délicat de remplir une forme donnée, même simple comme un rectangle.
Question donc : peut-on s'affranchir d'une forme prédéfinie dans l'interface de Wordalizer, pour contraindre le nuage de mots dans une forme préalablement dessinée sur la page ?
Quelle que soit la réponse (et peut-être l'ai-je manquée dans le PDF), bravo Marc pour cette nouvelle version.
Sincèrement,
Nico.
Bonjour Nico,
Merci pour ces encouragements nourris. J'en mesure toute la valeur, venant d'un utilisateur éclairé qui a accompagné avec beaucoup d'enthousiasme l'émergence d'indiscripts dans les années 2009-2010.
Concernant la question posée :
> [P]eut-on s'affranchir d'une forme prédéfinie dans l'interface de Wordalizer,
> pour contraindre le nuage de mots dans une forme préalablement
> dessinée sur la page ?
la réponse est non, pour l'instant. Wordalizer est insensible à l'agencement d'un nuage prélablement obtenu, il en ignore la forme exacte et reprend le travail à partir de zéro à chaque nouvelle génération — supprimant au passage les blocs ou éléments ajoutés a posteriori.
La prise en charge de formes personnalisées (définies par l'utilisateur) introduit des problèmes très complexes au regard de l'algorithme actuel. Comme j'ai eu l'occasion de m'en expliquer à plusieurs reprises, les performances limitées d'ExtendScript / InDesign ne permettent pas, à l'heure actuelle, d'introduire des calculs de collisions aussi puissants que ceux délivrés nativement par les applets qu'on trouve sur le Net.
Bien des choses qui sont possibles « en principe » ne le sont plus « en pratique » une fois que l'on met le doigt dans l'implémentation concrète, à moins de trouver des techniques d'optimisation très fortes. Je rappelle au passage que Wordalizer, dans ses toutes premières moutures, réclamait des temps de calcul insupportables. Le produit a pu se développer, en dépit de la lenteur du Scripting DOM, grâce à des astuces algorithmiques qui ne se sont réellement affinées qu'après plusieurs années. Et même aujourd'hui, sur des machines supersoniques, un nuage circulaire de 500 mots peut demander plus d'une minute de travail. En l'état, le volume de calculs suit une loi quasi exponentielle et il est déjà heureux que Wordalizer soit « viable » — pour information, la structure de données qui a rendu tolérable le temps de calcul est le « quad tree » : http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quadtr...
Il n'est pas exclu, Nico, que je m'attaque aux formes libres définies par l'utilisateur, mais je vous prie de croire que ce n'est pas une mince affaire ;-)
Amitiés,
Marc
Hello, I've just purchased and installed Wordalizer Pro. I am on Windows 7 and InDesign CS6.
When creating my first test cloud, I get the message, "Unable to compute any outline!" and no cloud is created.
Can you offer any help?
Thank you so much
Hi Anne,
Thanks for your feedback.
"Unable to compute any outline!" is typically the message you get when characters are not available in the selected font(s).
Make sure each font you select supports the characters used in your word list.
If the issue remains please contact me at support[at]indiscripts{dot}com.
Regards,
Marc
Is there by chance an educational pricing for Wordalizer 2015? Teach at a high school and would like to use this for the yearbook.
Hi Deb,
The TRY version is free and fully functional for educational purposes. It only appends the word 'Wordalizer' to the list, but this is really a slight constraint for the users who can still experiment word clouds and the many features of the product.
Note also that degressive rates are available in the order form (about 27% off for 30 seats). Feel free to contact me at legal[at]indiscripts{dot}com for further details.
Regards,
Marc
hi, i have just downloaded to try version in a view to getting the pro version. However, I am trying to enter words, i have followed the Manuel to the letter yet when i press enter it simply does not enter the new word into the list. nothing happens. What am i doing wrong?
Hi Eddie,
What is your OS? What InDesign version do you use? Please, send me more detail (screenshot, etc) at support[at]indiscripts{dot}com.
Regards,
Marc
Hi, I purchased the wordalizer pro a few months ago and it keeps crashing. What can I do different? Thank You
How can I force wordalizer to use words more than one time? This is strange that such basic feature is unavailable... When I copy to clipboard words repeated several times wordalizer takes into account only one occurence of each word...
Hi Mirek,
Thanks for your feedback.
> How can I force Wordalizer to use words more than one time? (…)
> When I copy to clipboard words repeated several times
> Wordalizer takes into account only one occurence of each word…
The very mechanism of Wordalizer is to compute stats based on word occurrences and to assign weights according to those frequencies. This is the default behavior of the script, its essential feature, since the wordcloud is basically required to reflect the most significant words in a graphical way.
Nevertheless, you have two ways to insert (and repeat) words based on custom choices and weights:
1. Use the word list editor in Wordalizer, so that you can manually enter words. Duplicates are allowed in that list (during the process you will be notified that the item already exists but you can validate the entry anyway.)
• For more detail see “Manually adding entries into the word list”: http://www.indiscripts.com/blog/pub...
2. You can also provide a prepared word list from an external source (e.g. the clipboard.) The option “Detect word list” must be turned on in the advanced settings. In that case, words and weights must be formatted line-by-line, and duplicates are allowed as well. Here is an example:
test: 8
word: 10
list: 12
test: 10
word: 15
list: 9
…
• For more detail see “Detecting word lists”: http://www.indiscripts.com/blog/pub...
Does it solve your problem?
Regards,
Marc
@ Yolanda (#11)
> I purchased the wordalizer pro a few months ago and it
> keeps crashing.
Please, contact the support at:
support [at] indiscripts {dot} com
I need detail on your system to investigate.
Regards,
Marc
Hi!
I'm looking at purchasing Wordalizer Pro after being very impressed with the trial but was just wondering if there's any way of using your own shapes rather than the preset ones?
Thanks
Guy
Hi Guy,
Thanks for your comment.
Indeed, custom shapes are not implemented so far. This is a really difficult challenge in InDesign scripting, but I still have it on the top of my wish stack.
Best,
Marc