Word cloud

The Word Cloud is a visualisation which displays the descriptions of categories from a selector or banded variable, as a "cloud" of words. Those words with the highest counts (or other cube statistic value) for the underlying selection are given the most prominence.

Create a word cloud¶

1. Create a Selection of records.

   

2. From the Visualisation section of the Toolbox drag and drop the Word Cloud tool on your open selection.

3. Now select the variable you want to visualize for the records in your selection. Drag this variable onto the drop zone entitled Drop your variable here. Click the Build button.

   

This example displays graphically the different newspapers read by the people in the underlying selection. Each newspaper category is represented proportionally to its readership... with larger text for higher volumes and smaller text for lower volumes. The descriptions are displayed randomly on the screen in a cloud effect.

Dimensions relationship¶

The default action when displaying a Word Cloud is to use a Single Dimension, in other words the results for the first variable dragged onto the tool.

It is also possible to use more than one variable and display these result as the dimensions added together or combined together.

In the above example the Add Dimensions Together button has been selected and 2 variables have been dragged onto the tool. The result of this action when built is to display the categories for both the variables in the Word Cloud window at the same time.

Due to the way in which the information is calculated, when you click the Build button you will be presented with the following Word Cloud Size window:

In our example there is only 23 categories in total but some variables could potentially give many thousands of results that cannot be displayed all at once. The default option here is to restrict the display to the Top 200 results. Click OK to see the results.

In the above example the Combine Dimensions Together button has been selected and 2 variables have been dragged onto the tool. The result of this action when built is to display the combination of categories from both the variables in the Word Cloud window.

Displayed statistic¶

To change the statistic upon which the display category description sizing is based upon:

1. Click on the Statistics button on the icon bar of your Word Cloud window.
2. Click on the Add Statistics... button and then select the radio button next to Specify other Table, Variable or Expression.

3. Drag on the item you wish to use. In this example the Cost variable will be used to Sum the total value of a persons booking spend. Click OK.

   

4. Click on the Statistics button once more and change the Primary Statistic so the tick is against the Sum(Cost) row only. Click OK and rebuild the Word Cloud.

   

5. The Word Cloud display will now resize the category descriptions based upon the volume of the total Sum(Cost) values for each person who belong to a particular category.

   

Restrict results¶

Some variables will have a very large number of categories or have to many data items to display on the Word Cloud.

1. Display the Word Cloud tool and drag a Text variable onto the drop zone and click the Build button. If there are to many data items to display you will see the following window:

   

2. Restrict the display by entering a minimum number for the values to be displayed or restrict by the Top or Bottom number of values.

3. Click OK to see the results.

To pre-empt this or to restrict the number of categories of a selector variable to be displayed, click on the Word Cloud Size button. The same options as above will be presented to you.

Change appearance¶

To make the results display more interesting you may want to change the font, size and colour of the words.

1. Click on the Font button.

   

2. Change the Font and click the Use Random Colours box. Click OK.

   

To help with viewing the Word Cloud, facilities are available to allow you to pan around the display, get the image to 'fit to size' and allow you to change the size of the overall display.

Mousing over the area to the left of the display in the image below gives you access to these functions.

Pan the diagram¶

1. Click on the bottom button of the cluster.

2. Click on the Word Cloud image and drag around the window to the desired position and let go of the mouse button.

3. To move again repeat step 1 and 2.

Fit to screen¶

1. Click on the middle button of the cluster.

2. The Word Cloud image will set itself to the optimum size for the window.

Zoom the diagram¶

1. Click on the sliding button and move between the Min and Max options to change the overall size of the image.

Shredded text¶

A 'shredded' text variable is one where the contents of a text variable is broken up in to words and then these are analysed to see how frequently they occur. For example Twitter tweets or Facebook status messages could be broken down into words and then shown in a Word Cloud to see how frequently certain terms or brand names are used.

1. Right drag a Text variable on to the drop zone of a Word Cloud.
2. From the pop up menu select Add as shredded variable.

3. Right click on the shredded variable drop zone and select Edit.

   

   From the window that has appeared you can select and determine:

   • Case Mapping: The case used in the Word Cloud display
   • Minimum Word Length: Any words of less than the set number will be filtered from the display
   • Maximum Word Length: Any words of more than the set number will be filtered from the display
   • Pattern Match: Allows you to filter using wildcard characters - "*" and "?"
   • Words to: Enter words to specifically exclude or include in the Word Cloud display

4. Click the Build button.

You may be asked to restrict the number of results displayed at this point. See Restrict results