How to create a Tag Cloud for wordpress.com blogs (non-geek version!)

YOU can now easily have a Tag Cloud in a page in your wordpress.com blog. It’s basically just a copy-and-paste system and very easy. You can view my tag cloud here.

This tutorial assumes that you have Firefox.

Step-by-step instructions:

1. Go to your widgets and place the “Tag Cloud” widget in your side bar. Remember to save changes.
2. View your blog (in Firefox).
3. Select all the tags from the sidebar with your cursor.
4. Right-click and choose “View Selection source”.
5. Copy the code.
6. Open a new Notepad file and paste the code.
7. Save the code as Tagcloud.html. Just enter Tagcloud.html in the “Save” dialogue box and the HTML file will be created.
8. Open Tagcloud.html in another window. Voila! Your Tag Cloud appears in the window!
9. Select and copy everything in the window.
10. Open a new MS Word file and paste the tag cloud.
11. Save the MS Word file as a webpage - give it the name TagcloudMSWord.
12. Open the file TagcloudMSWord in Firefox.
13. Select and copy everything in the window.
14. Come back to your blog and create a new page (or post) and name it Tag Cloud.
15. Simply paste your copied Tag Cloud in your post using the Visual Editor.
16. Save and view the page.

You will find the Tag Cloud sitting pretty in your newly created page!

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A suggestion

You might want to remove the “Tag Cloud” widget from the side bar if you have it in a page.

What about the Category cloud?

It is also possible to link to a Category Cloud page/post in the same fashion. But for that you initially have to choose the Category Cloud widget instead of the Tag Cloud widget.

Why MS Word ?

Although MS Word usually clashes with wordpress.com, here it is indispensable. MS Word conveniently changes the font size units from percentage to point - needed in order to retain the variation of size of the tags in a page or post.

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Another useful tip

The default Tag Cloud widget for wordpress.com blogs doesn’t allow for any customization. If you want to have a customizable Tag cloud in the side bar, you can create one in the process mentioned here and paste the Tag Cloud in a text widget!

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Some related issues

• The categories will show the post count (if you chose that when you configured the Category Cloud widget). But since it’s not a self-updating thing, the post count won’t change when you make a new post under a category. Not to worry, this doesn’t mean that your new post won’t show under the category.
• For the same reason no new tag/category that you create after the creation of your Tag/Category Cloud Page will show.
• It is recommended to update your Tag/Category Cloud page from time-to-time in the process mentioned above to keep up with your growing blog. How often you have to update your Tag Cloud depends largely on how up-to-date you want to stay and how often you update your blog.
• As it is known already, items pasted from MS Word has formatting issues in wordpress.com blogs. It is advisable to check if there is a space between each tag. If not, please insert the space using the “Code” mode and not the “Visual” mode. This is to ensure that the space is not inadvertently pasted in a wrong place. Whenever you need to insert a space do so between </a> and <a>.
• This is a very basic Tag/Category Cloud creation method that you can utilize without downloading any program. It is also limited in its features.
• If you are looking for customization of your Tag Cloud, then check out the customizable Tag Cloud generation technique for wordpress.com blogs.
• I also highly recommend Engtech’s ingenious Tag Cloud Generator. A must-see especially if you have CSS upgrade. You have to download it in order to start the process. (The Tag Cloud doesn’t dynamically change over time, though.)
• If you want to learn more about Tag Clouds, you can do so at coelomic.
• You might also want to learn about the difference between categories and tags in wordpress.com blogs.
• Check out what Lorelle says about which one to use (categories or tags) in your blog and why.

Was this post helpful? Do let me know!

How about some link love?!

Grab the suitable code - it will create a text link that will say “Create your own Tag Cloud” and “Create your own Category Cloud” respectively. If you use this tutorial to create a Tag Cloud page, then please paste the following code under the Tag Cloud.

<a title="Tag Cloud page creation for wordpess.com blogs!" href="http://shongjog.wordpress.com/2008/03/29/how-to-create-a-tag-cloud-for-wordpresscom-blogs-non-geek-version/">Create your own Tag Cloud page!</a>

If you use the tutorial to create a Category Cloud page, then paste this code instead.

<a title="Category Cloud page creation for wordpress.com blogs!" href="http://shongjog.wordpress.com/2008/03/29/how-to-create-a-tag-cloud-for-wordpresscom-blogs-non-geek-version/">Create your own Category Cloud page!</a>

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