Ever wonder how to create a word cloud in Microsoft PowerPoint?
If you're looking to turn a disinterested audience into one that hangs on to your every word, using a live word cloud that updates with participant responses is one of the easiest ways. With the steps below, you could create word clouds in PPT within 5 minutes.
Table of Contents
How to make Word Cloud in PowerPoint with AhaSlides
Below is the free, no-download way to make a live word cloud for PowerPoint. Follow these five steps to win some super easy engagement from your audience.
🎉 Extra tips to make your presentation interactive.
Step 1: Create a Free AhaSlides Account
Sign up with AhaSlides for free in under 1 minute. No card details or downloads are required.
Step 2: Get a Word Cloud integration for PowerPoint
PowerPoint offers several add-ins specifically designed for creating word clouds. We will be using the AhaSlides integration here since it's easy to use and it offers a collaborative word cloud function for the audience to interact with.
Open PowerPoint - head to Insert - Add-ins - Get Add-ins, and find AhaSlides. The AhaSlides integration for PowerPoint currently works with Microsoft Office 2019 and later.
Step 3: Add your Word Cloud
Click on the 'New Presentation' button and choose 'Word Cloud' slide types. Type in the question to ask the audience and click 'Add slide'.
Step 4: Edit your Word Cloud
There are many cool settings in the AhaSlides word cloud you could fiddle with. You can choose your setting preferences; you can choose how many entries each participant gets, turn on the profanity filter or add a time limit for submission.
Head to the 'Customise' tab to change the look of your word cloud. Change the background, theme and colour, and even embed some audio that plays from participants' phones while they're responding.
Step 5: Get Responses!
Click the 'Add slide' button to add the prepared slide to your PowerPoint slide deck. Your participants can interact with the PowerPoint word cloud by scanning the QR join code or typing the unique join code shown on top of the presentation screen.
Their words appear in real-time on your word cloud, with more frequent responses appearing larger. You can also group words with the same meaning together with the group function.
5 PowerPoint Word Cloud Ideas
Word clouds are super versatile, so there are a lot of uses for them. Here are five ways to get the most out of your word cloud for PowerPoint.
- Breaking ice - Whether virtual or in-person, presentations need icebreakers. Asking how everyone is feeling, what everyone is drinking or what people thought of the game last night never fails to loosen participants up ahead of (or even during) the presentation.
- Gathering opinions - A great way to start a presentation is by setting the scene with an open-ended question. Use a word cloud to ask what words come to mind when they think about the topic you're going to talk about. This can reveal interesting insights and give you a great segue into your topic.
- Voting - While you can use a multiple-choice poll on AhaSlides, you can also do open-ended voting by asking for replies in a visually striking word cloud. The largest response is the winner!
- Checking to understand - Ensure everyone follows along by hosting regular word cloud breaks. After each section, ask a question and get responses in word cloud format. If the right answer looms much larger than the rest, you can safely move on with your presentation!
- Brainstorming - Sometimes, the best ideas come from quantity, not quality. Use a word cloud for a mind dump; get everything your participants can possibly think of down onto the canvas, then refine from there.
Benefits of a Live Word Cloud for PowerPoint
If you're new to the world of PowerPoint word clouds, you might be wondering what they can offer you. Trust us, once you've experienced these benefits, you won't go back to monologue presentations...
- 64% of presentation participants think interactive content, like a live word cloud, is more engaging and entertaining than one-way content. A well-timed word cloud or two could differentiate between attentive participants and those bored out of their skulls.
- 68% of presentation participants find interactive presentations to be more memorable. That means that your word cloud won't just make it a splash when it lands; your audience will continue to feel the ripple for a long time.
- 10 minutes is the usual limit that people have when listening to a PowerPoint presentation. An interactive word cloud can increase this massively.
- Word clouds help your audience to have their say, which makes them feel more valued.
- Word clouds are highly visual, which is proven to be more attractive and memorable, especially helpful for online webinar and events.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why use Word Cloud in PowerPoint presentations?
Word clouds can be a valuable addition to PowerPoint presentations, as it's visually appealing, help to summarise information faster, emphasise important words, enhance data exploration, support storytelling and gain better audience engagement!
What are the best word cloud for PowerPoint?
AhaSlides Word Cloud (allows you to create for free), Wordart, WordClouds, Word It Out and ABCya! Check out best collaborative word cloud!
