Rich Text Editors – YGMTYCS not WYSIWYG

The web world abounds with ways to make web development easier for everyone. WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) web development tools (or Rich Text Editors) are the usual way developers try to make life easier. However, WYSIWYG (wizzy-wig) is more often than not YGMTYCS (yiggem-ticks) or You Get More Than You Can See.

I was reading through my feeds this morning and ProBloggers post on the recent WordPress 2.0.2 release inspired this post. He discusses how the WordPress Rich Text Editor is next to useless for him. Other commentors seem to agree. The reason behind their dissent is YGMTYCS.

WYSIWIG capable tools from Frontpage to Dreamweaver to smaller rich text editors like in WordPress ALL put extra code inside the HTML document. Only the savvy developer who checks the actual code can see the mess that is often created. In other words, you get more than you can see.

What is the problem with YGMTYCS?

• Non-standard code
• Websites that break
• Lack of control

What is the solution?

Hand coding websites. Yes, even for beginners this is what we recommend. Rich Text Editors within tools like WordPress can easily be turned off. We recommend an HTML Editor that is well suited for hand coding as well as recommend various web design, html and css tutorials.

Turn off the WYSIWYG and truly turn on your eyes.

[tags]web design, html, wysiwyg[/tags]