Slido is gradually rolling out a new user interface. If the below steps and visuals match what you are seeing within your account, then you are using the old interface and this article is for you. If not, please see this version.
Word cloud creates a "cloud" of the most popular words or short phrases that are sent by your audience.
It lets you identify silent heroes, find out which company value resonates the most with your employees, or just warm up your participants with a fun question before it comes to more serious topics.
In this article:
- How the word cloud works
- Create a word cloud
- Moderate text entries in a word cloud
- Display your word cloud in Present mode
- How word cloud works for participants
How the word cloud works
Here are four simple principles of the word cloud:
- Short answers work best
Advise your participants to use one to three words when using the word cloud to get the best results. Longer phrases or sentences will be displayed, but they might cause a mixup.
- No swearing
Swear words won't go through at all.
- Watch the words grow
The size of the word changes dynamically depending on how many times your attendees submit it.
- Some words that are considered ‘connector’ words, will not show
When submitting (or advising on submitting to participants) to the Word Cloud, it’s worth keeping in mind that words we use to typically connect to other words conversationally are filtered out. Examples of such words are ‘However,’ ‘Ok,’ and ‘This.’ Our reason for the words being filtered this way is due to the Word Cloud being designed to create maximum impact visually for your participants.
If you want to display answers in complete sentences, our Open Text Poll may work better for your use case.
Create a word cloud
Before starting with polls, make sure to create an event first. Once ready, go to Live Polls tab:
- Click Create poll
- Select Word cloud
- Type in your question and hit Save
Or click Browse templates and select an example word cloud to use at your next meeting or event.
Keep in mind that multiple entries are not possible if your word cloud is part of a survey.
Moderate text entries in a word cloud
Once you click the Play icon, your poll is active and the audience can submit their votes. They appear on the right side of your admin as a list.
If you receive poisonous or unwanted responses to your word cloud, you can delete them with a simple click.
Display your word cloud in Present mode
To show the real-time results of your word cloud to your audience in a nice visual way, display the Present mode for them:
- Make sure your poll is active
- Navigate to the green Present mode button in the upper right corner
- Select your preferred option
You can open Present mode in a separate window or copy the link and open it in a new tab of your browser.
This is how your participants will see it in present mode.
Quick tip: Start the word cloud with hidden results
Hide the results at the beginning to prevent people from influencing each other with their answers or to delete irrelevant submissions before they show up live. To hide the results, click the "eye icon" next to your poll question.
How word cloud works for participants
Once you activate your word cloud, your participants will be able to submit their answers. If multiple responses are allowed, a new line will appear as soon as the participant begins typing a word.
To see how the word cloud displays when the audience joins from their computers, copy the event link under the "share" button and open it in another tab of your browser.
Participants can see word cloud suggestions based on the already submitted answers (even 1 is enough). As an admin, you can use this feature to pre-populate your word cloud with submissions.
Each line is considered as a single entry, no matter the number of words included. Make sure your instructions in the poll description are clear or explain verbally what you're after.
Once the participants submit their answers, they will see the word cloud on their mobile, tablet, or computer screen. The number of words shown on the device depends on the size of the screen.
Useful tips:
- Tip 1: Test your word cloud
It's always a good practice to check if everything's working before your event starts. Try to send a testing vote from Participant mode on the left-hand side to put yourself into the shoes of your participants, open Present mode in your browser to see how the answer looks on the screen, and then reset results to start from zero.
- Tip 2: Advise the audience on the format of submitted words
Word cloud works best with short answers. Agree on the unified format of the words or phrases. Even slight alteration may cause a mismatch.
- Tip 3: Handling capital letters and special characters
All letters will be turned to lower case. Special characters (æ, ø, å, š, č) will be replaced by simple letters.
Curious about more?