WP-Cumulus Plugin

In passing, I noticed WP-Cumulus being discussed by @macartisan from over at Electron Sorter. I checked out the link and it was pretty cool.  It takes your WordPress tags and/or categories and renders them in a 3D style animated cloud.   I use over 100 tags on my blog so the default settings were a huge mess initially.  Luckily, the WP-Cumulus developer included a well thought out and well documented Settings page for the plugin.

On the Settings page you can use fairly standard WordPress function parameters to control how many tags display and how large or small they should appear.  You can also edit the colors so it matches your theme.  One other nice addition is the “Use transparent mode” option so your blog’s colors or background images show through.

The rendition shown below is modified with “smallest=3&largest=20&number=25” so the font sizes range from 3 to 20 and only 25 tags are included.   There is also a widgetized version included, but its just too small for my tastes.   The Plugin allows you to insert a tag cloud anywhere in a post or page by just inserting [WP-CUMULUS].   You can incorporate the animated cloud other places in your theme by inserting <?php wp_cumulus_insert(); ?> in your WP Theme where ever you want it to appear.

You can download WP-Cumulus free from the official WordPress.org Plugin Directory.  The plugin requires WordPress version 2.3 or newer and your visitors must have Flash Player 9 or newer to see the tag cloud in all its glory.