For beginning Web designers, WYSIWYG (What
You See Is What You Get) editors sound
almost too good to be true. You can
quickly design and post a Web site without
writing a line of HTML code. That method
often works great for small or
uncomplicated sites. However, a WYSIWYG
editor is often surprisingly difficult to
use for more sophisticated page designs.
Your decision to use a WYSIWYG editor - or
not - should depend on your skill level and
project requirements.
WYSIWYG Editors Offer Broad Benefits
FrontPage is probably the most popular
WYSIWYG editor. Other popular editors
include: GoLive, Dreamweaver, and HoTMetaL
Pro. Other code based editors like
HomeSite and Dreamweaver also have limited
WYSIWYG modes too.
Inexperienced Web designers love WYSIWYG
editors. The software is easy to learn,
making possible to quickly design and post
a site - sometimes in just a matter of
hours. The visual interface lets you
concentrate on design and layout without
getting intimidated by the underlying HTML
code.
In spite of their bad press, WYSIWYG
editors aren't just for HTML dummies:
experienced designers use them too. It's
usually much quicker to design and populate
a complex table structure with many rows
and columns using a WYSIWYG editor. Most
editors let you alternate between the HTML
code and page view mode. Use that
capability to quickly evaluate the effect
of your changes without opening a browser.
As these editors evolve, they're getting
better at handling complex tasks that used
to always require hand coding to work
properly. Web novices can now include
JavaScript and DHTML
effects on their Web site. Dreamweaver
is especially useful for this, but most
other editors offer similar features.
But There Are Downsides
Of course, there are downsides to virtually
every coding technique and WYSIWYG editors
are no exception. Here are some things to
consider when using a WYSIWYG editor:
HTML Isn't WYSIWYG:
All editors try to map WYSIWYG
metaphors into HTML code - with varying
degrees of success. WYSIWYG editors often
make mistakes: many are notorious for
failing to close FONT tags or misplacing
other tags on the page. Since browsers
resolve HTML problems according to
different rules, you can encounter
unexpected problems when you test the
pages.
Use a good html
checker to verify your editor-generated
HTML. It will alert you to illegal tags
and potential cross-browser display
problems.
Editor-Specific Tags:
Be wary of using editor-specific
tags on your Web site because they can
cause you problems later. For instance,
you can develop forms in FrontPage by
filling in the blanks in FrontPage's popup
menus. FrontPage then generates the HTML
code for form handling and verification and
places the information inside a FrontPage
component called a "webbot." If you use
the webbot feature and plan to move
your site to a new hosting company,
make sure the company supports FrontPAge
extensions.
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Code ERROR |
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[an error occurred
while processing
this directive]
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Illegal HTML Tags:
Some editors build pages using
illegal HTML commands or tag placements.
That will confuse some browsers and
definitely confuses HTML repair tools. For
instance, FrontPage will often put a CENTER
tag between TR tags. To "fix" that error you need to rewright the
table or
split your table into two parts. No
matter what editor or repair tool you use,
it's always a bad idea to use illegal tags!
Limited Functionality:
HTML itself isn't a precise
language and you often have to wrestle with
your code to produce the exact result you
want. A WYSIWYG editor is less precise
than editing by hand because it adds a
layer between the designer and the code.
There are just some things you can't do
with a WYSIWYG editor, so you have to edit
your code by hand.
Editing Difficulty:
You may have problems if you
load a page you coded by hand into a
WYSIWYG editor. They often reformat your
code according to their own rules, which
makes it difficult to go back and edit the
page by hand afterwards. Some will even
break the page entirely. Netscape Composer
doesn't handle nested pages well and often
breaks a page that uses them correctly.
Working Around The Problems
The difference between WYSIWYG and code
based editors used to be quite pronounced,
but has blurred recently. Most of the
major editors offer both HTML code and
WYSIWYG page view modes. That option lets
you take advantage of the strengths of both
methods. You can easily do initial layout
in WYSIWYG mode and then get into the code
in edit mode to resolve problems and refine
your pages.
Avoid becoming dependent on a single editor
though, because this limits what techniques
you can use on your page. You may also
find yourself "locked in" to a editor if
you let it include special tags or
techniques that other editors can't
interpret.
You need to have at least a basic knowledge
of HTML when you're working with Web pages.
WYSIWYG editors are a great way to get
started in Web design - just make sure you
don't stop there!
