Pros and Cons of WYSIWYG Editors

There are many benefits to "what you see is what you get" (WYSIWYG) HTML editors. But there are also some drawbacks. Before you join the debate, learn all the facts. I define an editor as a WYSIWYG editor if it's primary editing mode is WYSIWYG, even if it includes a text editing option.

Latest Developments

Most advanced Web development tools these days offer the ability to edit your Web pages in both HTML/code view and in WYSIWYG. So the distinction is not as strict.

What's All the Fuss About?

This argument really stems from the way tht Web page development started. When it first began in the early- to mid- 1990s, building a Web page required that you be able to write HTML code, but as editors got more and more sophisticated they allowed people who didn't know HTML to build Web pages. The problem was (and often, still is) that WYSIWYG editors can generate HTML that is hard to read, not standards compliant and only really editable in that editor. HTML code purists believe that this is a corruption of the intent of Web pages. While designers feel that whatever makes it easy for them to build their pages is acceptable and even valuable.

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