Wordaizer is easy to use. There are a few basic controls and some specific controls. The heart of the application has two functional areas and eight buttons, each with a specific function. The status bar at the bottom shows some relevant information, while the menu has additional input and output controls.

The Viewer, Mask, Text and Video Player tabs
These three tabs (or 'pages') are used to view the resulting word cloud (also referred to as the 'Canvas' ), to draw a new mask (the so-called 'on-the-fly' mask), and to replay the video wordlet.

The function buttons
There are six groups of controls to fully tune and mould the word cloud to the desired size, shape and colour. Each button works like a tile: it shows a functional pop-up window which is refreshed with every new click on one of the function buttons.

Shape: the text settings

• Amount: the target number of words that need to be printed in the word cloud. It depend on the other settings how many and which words can actually be used to print in the word cloud. For instance, for a large font size and a high amount the number of actually used words will likely be small. In that case a smaller font size is needed.
• Font size: The basic font size is selected in the tab 'Font settings'. However, with this control a quick tuning of the best font size can be done. The slider ranges from 0.5 to 2x the basic font size. In case the tuning rangle doesn't lead to the desired result, you need to change the basic font size.
• Minimum word length: Wordaizer has no possibility to automatically remove common words from the word selections for the cloud. Instead, we assume that common words (in any language) are usually short words, so these can be simply filtered by settings the minimum word length. This way common words like 'the', 'and', 'or', that' etc. are effectively excluded from the word cloud. Also (small) numbers are excluded this way. Wordaizer however uses a so-called 'exclusion list' approach, to manually add (as an ANSI text file) to the application. This feature is for licensed users only. More information is provided below (in the paragraph ''Menu' and 'File'). 
• Size method: the word cloud is built with words that decrease in size with decreasing frequency of appearance in the text. The degree of decrease can be set with the size method. There are basically four sizing methods ('steepest', 'steep', 'curved' and 'straight') and two metrics to determine the size ('rank' and 'frequency'). All eight methods have a different effect on the final result. A last method is called 'at random', and does not follow any sequence to determine the font size of each word in the cloud.
• Size range: the word cloud uses a range of font sizes, independent of the amount and frequency of words that is available or selected. This range can be set with this control. The range of size varies from Basic size/4 ('Biggest') to Basic size/8 ('Smallest') in steps of 1.
• Random font: when checked, with each word cloud a new font is selected at random from the top 19 list of the available fonts.
• Custom word: most users will provide a text file from which the word frequency is derived. An alternative to this approach is provided where only one word (or sentence) in the edit box is used to build the word cloud.

Shape: setting the size and shape

• Canvas size: the size of the canvas, in print format. The range is A6 to A1 at 200 dpi. The actual print size can be changed by any printer command, because this control mainly sets the number of pixels of the end picture of the word cloud. For convenience we use paper size and not pixels.
• Density: the density of the words in the word cloud. The default is 50%, which is a balanced trade-off between speed (density also means computing time) and visual appearance (less dense does not always look very good).
• Ratio H/V: the ratio of horizontally placed words over vertically placed words. A value of 0% indicates that all words are put horizontally in the cloud. For any value between 0 and 100% the actual ratio of horizontally and vertically placed words is determined by a probability engine. The selected ratio is therefore a target value, and not an accurate ratio that can be set.
• Word angle: the words can be put in the word cloud at any angle between 0 and 90 degrees. When any other angle is selected than 0 or 90 degrees, Wordaizer will try to create a cloud where the words are put on the indicated angle. The H/V ratio then acts as the ratio clockwise/anti-clockwise angles.
• Random angle: when checked the angle is randomly selected between 0 and the indicated word angle.
• Rotate paper: when checked the mask is rotated anti-clockwise (as if the paper is rotated). When rotating the mask, the edges (left and right) will be clipped to make sure the size of the mask content is not getting smaller. In that case please take care that a mask can be rotated without clipping the content at the edges. Alternatively, you can also draw a sideways mask, and then untick this option again. The 'Ratio H/V' placed words will not swap with this option. It will remain as seen on the screen.

• The mask drop-down box: the application comes with a number of pre-installed masks. The drop-down list contains all the masks that are currently available in the application. Each mask name must start with 'm_' and must have the file extension '.jpg'. The user can make masks, and add to this list via the menu commands, or manually copy the mask file into the masks directory (see here).

• Pen thickness: the user can draw a mask 'on-the-fly' by using the mouse as a pen on the (black) canvas (the 'Mask' button). The line thickness of the (white) pen is set by this control. Pressing the SHIFT button while drawing, the pen becomes an eraser by changing its colour to black. Please bear in mind: all masks must be in black and white only, coloured masks won't work very well.
• The 'Draw' and 'Erase' options will turn the mouse into a pen (white) or eraser (black).
• To reset the mask press the 'Reset mask' button. The mask will be fully erased. This cannot be undone.
• 'Mask 1' and 'Mask 2': you can create wordlets with two different fonts. One font is attached to mask 1, the second to mask 2. In the 'Features and Functions' chapter you find more information how to apply this feature effectively.
• TIP: if you doubleclick on the mask (in the example above: the alien) the mask is copied to the workspace (use the 'Mask' button) for editing.

Font bar settings

• Available fonts: this drop-down list shows all available fonts in the operating system. The top of this list is an additional predefined set of 19 fonts. This top 19 is used for font randomization.
• Basic size: (the size drop-down box, here: '48') the maximum font size in the word cloud. There is an absolute size, so in case the paper size is increased, the resulting word cloud will look smaller. With a larger paper size, it is recommended to also increase the basic font size. With the small buttons 'A' and 'A' the size can conveniently be increased or increased.
• Bold and italic: the typeface of the font can be set. If set, the small tickbox will be checked. 
• Antialiased: the rough edges of the font are softened. Some people experience this effect as an unsharp edge ('blurry').

Colours

Wordaizer has three different approaches to settings the colours for the word cloud. A fourth personalize colour scheme is provided in the 'Extra' function tab (described here). These are:

• Colour palettes: these palettes have a limited number of predefined colours, and are derived from GIF files (this is the default colour selection)
• Colour variations: starting from a selected colour new colours are derived, following the hue ('rainbow') colour scheme
• Colour schemes: these colour schemes follow the colour harmony methods as known in the more theoretical world of colours

Colours: colour palettes

• Colour palette name: the name of the GIF file that carries the colours of the palette. These files are located in the colours directory (see here).
• Background colour: moving the slider will select a different colour from the palette as the background colour of the word cloud. The first colour is always the colour of the windows panel, the last two colours are always white and black. When a background colour is selected from the colour palette, this colour is excluded for printing words in the cloud.

Colours: colour variations

• Number of colours: the number of word colours, varying from 1 to 10. The colours are seen in the top half of the little rectangular colour patch box.
• Starting colour: The starting colour, from which the next colours are derived. The large rectangle is used to set the luminance and saturation of the colour range, the rainbow slider selects the hue of the starting colour. The colours that follow from the selected hue climb up the hue ladder. When the number of colours is higher than the hue scale, the colour range continues from bottom-up. Actually, the hue is not a linear range (as the colour picker suggests) but it's a circle.
• Colour variation: the distance between the basic colour and the next. A low distance results in colours that gradually 'climb up' in the rainbow, a larger distance will result in continuation from the bottom.
• Variation: each colour can be varied at random. The effect is shown in the lower half of the colour patch. The larger the variation, the more deviation from the colour can be expected. The actual variation of each character is selected at random (but within the variation boundary).
• Background colour: the colour of the canvas. Most word clouds look very nice on a black canvas, but each colour can be used.
• Use this colour palette: when checked it overrules the other two colour selection methods.

Colours: colour schemes

• Use this colour scheme: when checked it overrules the other two colour selection methods.
• The drop-down box: this box contains 6 different colour schemes, from 2 to 4 colours. The schemes are reflected by the colour patch, where the top colour is the basis, and the 4 little rectangles below are the harmonious variations per colour. All colours are used in the word cloud, incl. the variations. In this way 5 to 20 different colours are generated.
• The vertical slider: this slider sets the distance between the harmonious colours, in degrees of the hue value.
• Use this colour scheme: when checked it overrules the other two colour selection methods.