Can bounding box coordinates be retrieved for words in a WordCloud?

Question

The documentation shows how Mathematica can attach behavior to words in WordClouds, but I couldn't find anything on retrieving the list of bounding box coordinates.
Is it available to the user?

__
I'm on version 11.2

Answer 1

words = {"apple", "banana", "grapes", "orange", "grapes", "apple", 
  "grapes", "grapes", "strawberry", "strawberry", "grapes", "grapes", 
  "banana", "apple", "orange", "grapes", "strawberry", "banana", 
  "apple", "grapes"};

You can get the bounding boxes using the (hidden) option "BoundingBoxes" -> True:

wc = WordCloud[words, "BoundingBoxes" -> True, ImagePadding -> 10]

rectangles = Cases[wc, _Rectangle, All]

{Rectangle[{-107,-(81/2)},{107,81/2}],
Rectangle[{-38.5,15.},{38.5,52.}],
Rectangle[{6.5,-48.},{105.5,-21.}],
Rectangle[{-70.,-43.},{-2.,-24.}],
Rectangle[{-26.5,-53.},{10.5,-38.}]}

Show[WordCloud[words, ImagePadding -> 10], 
 Graphics[{EdgeForm[Gray], Opacity[.2, RandomColor[]], #} & /@ rectangles]]

WordCloud[words, "BoundingBoxes" -> True, 
  WordOrientation -> "Random", ImagePadding -> 15] /.
    r_Rectangle :> { Opacity[.3, RandomColor[]], r}

$Version

"11.3.0 for Microsoft Windows (64-bit) (March 7, 2018)"

This also works in version 12.0.0 (Wolfram Cloud).

Note: I came across this option using

Image`CompositionOperationsDump`WordCloudHiddenOptions // Short

 {BitmapOutput -> False, BoundingBoxes-> False, Caching -> False,<<16>>, 
 WordSelectionFunction -> Automatic, WordSpacings -> 1}