How to Use a Wheel Spinner

A wheel spinner looks like a toy and works like a decision machine. You put options on it, spin, and physics picks one so nobody has to. This guide walks through every feature of the Wheel Of List spinner — from your first spin to shared, weighted, image-based wheels — so you can use it for anything from picking a restaurant to running a live giveaway.

1. Add your options

Type names into the list on the left, one per line. Each line becomes a slice. You can also paste a whole column from a spreadsheet and the wheel rebuilds instantly. Hit Spin in the middle (or click the wheel) and it lands on one slice at random.

2. Make the wheel recognisable (images)

Paste an image URL next to a name and the slice shows the picture instead of text — logos for teams, photos for people, emoji for themes. This is what makes the wheel feel like a game rather than a form.

3. Weight the odds (without rigging them)

Sometimes a fair spin isn't what you want. Give an entry a bigger weight and it takes up a proportionally larger slice, so it wins more often. Weighting is the honest way to express "I want X twice as likely as Y" — everyone can see the slice sizes, so it's transparent, not a trick. Use it for: weighting giveaway entries by number of tickets, favouring a restaurant you all secretly want, or giving a beginner a bigger slice in a party game.

4. Save presets you reuse

Lunch options, a chore list, a class roster — if you spin the same list weekly, save it as a preset. Presets also generate clean shareable links, so the whole list travels with the URL: send wheeloflist.com/?items=... to a friend and they open your exact wheel.

5. Share the wheel by link

Click Copy link and the current list is encoded into the URL. This is the fastest way to run a remote giveaway or let a group add names: everyone opens the same wheel, nobody retypes anything. For Instagram or YouTube giveaways, paste your commenter list, spin once on camera, done.

6. Sound, themes and editing in place

The wheel ticks as each slice passes and plays a win sound on landing (mute it with the speaker button). Ten colour themes let you match the mood — from plain light mode to neon and retro arcade. Double-click a slice to rename it; drag to reorder.

When to use a wheel (and when not to)

Use a wheel when the decision is genuinely arbitrary, when you want consensus without negotiation, or when you need the choice to look random and unarguable (dish duty, seat order, who goes first). Don't use a wheel when real preferences exist — a wheel can't discover that half your group hates mushrooms. Decide the options honestly, then let the wheel pick.

Common tasks