Word Cloud in Word, PowerPoint and Google Slides

Short answer

Word, PowerPoint and Google Slides do not have a built-in word cloud feature. The quickest route is to make the cloud with the generator above, download it as a picture, and insert the picture. There are add-ins and add-ons for each program, but they usually need you to install something, sign in or work inside the program; this route needs none of that, and your text stays in your browser.

Step 1: make the cloud for the place it will go

1. Paste your text, or a word, count list, into the generator above and press Generate.
2. For a slide, set Canvas size to Widescreen 1600 x 900, which matches a 16:9 slide. For a page in a document, Landscape or Portrait suits better.
3. Set Background: White for a white slide or page, Transparent if the slide has a colour or photo behind it, or Custom to match your slide colour exactly.
4. Pick a palette with enough contrast. The generator warns you under the cloud if some colours are too faint for the background.
5. Keep words horizontal for anything that will be shown on a screen.

Step 2: choose SVG or PNG

• PNG works everywhere: every version of Word, PowerPoint, Google Slides, Keynote and email. Choose PNG 2x for a sharp result on large screens.
• SVG stays sharp at any size. Recent versions of Microsoft 365 for Windows and Mac can insert SVG files into Word and PowerPoint as graphics, which you can resize without losing quality and recolour from the Graphics Format tab. Older versions may not support SVG, and the font in an SVG is not embedded, so use PNG if you want it to look exactly as you designed it on any computer.
• Google Slides does not accept SVG files as images, so use the PNG there.

Word

1. Put the cursor where the cloud should go.
2. Choose Insert, then Pictures, and pick the file from your device.
3. Drag a corner to resize it, holding Shift if you want to be sure the proportions stay the same.
4. To place it beside text, select the picture, open the Picture Format tab and use Wrap Text.
5. Right-click the picture and use the alt text option to describe it, for example: “Word cloud of survey answers; the largest words are support, price and delivery.”

PowerPoint

1. Open the slide, then choose Insert and Pictures (on some versions, Picture from file or This device).
2. Choose the PNG (or SVG on a recent Microsoft 365 version).
3. Resize and place it. If the background is transparent, it will take the colour of the slide.
4. Add alt text through the right-click menu, and put the top five or six counts in the slide notes or a small table, so the numbers are available to anyone who cannot see the picture.

Google Slides and Google Docs

1. Choose Insert, then Image, then Upload from computer, and pick the PNG.
2. Resize with the corner handles and move it where you want it.
3. Right-click the image and choose Alt text to describe it.

The same method works in Google Docs, Keynote, Canva, email and most other places that accept pictures.

Excel

If your words and counts are in Excel, you do not need an add-in either: copy the two columns, paste them into the generator, and bring the picture back into your workbook or deck. The Excel and CSV page shows the accepted formats.

Check before you present

• Is the text still readable from the back of the room? Make the canvas the same shape as the space and keep the number of words modest (40 to 60 for a slide).
• Does the cloud answer a question? Add a title saying what text it came from.
• Have you cleaned the source text? Headings, speaker names and repeated phrases will otherwise be the biggest words.

More word cloud tools and guides

• Word cloud generator
• How to make a word cloud
• Word cloud from Excel or CSV
• Word cloud shapes