This article is not to persuade anyone to change their existing methods of producing websites, nor is it my intention to offend anyone. I wrote this article to defend people who like to use WYSIWYG editors.

There really is nothing wrong with using a WYSIWYG editor - especially if you already know how to write HTML and scripts. When you know how to write your code, you can better understand what is going on with the code. Actually, if you don't know how to write HTML, a WYSIWYG editor can be a good learning tool.

If you are designing websites for profit and you do not know HTML very well, then reaching project goals will be difficult and you may have some unhappy clients, which is never good. I would start out designing small websites or build websites that do not have a deadline.

For those of you who can write HTML from scratch, can clean up the code that WYSIWYG editors throw at you, but prefer to use a WYSIWYG editor I say "GOOD FOR YOU"! WYSIWYG editors will decrease time spent on hand-coding, which will result in pleasing your clients, reaching your project goals faster, and increasing your profits faster. Who will complain? Your client will be happy that he/she did not have to wait a long period of time AND they have a functional website to meet their online business goals. The goal for all website designers/developers should be to satisfy your clients as quickly as possible without sacrificing website quality. Why would anyone think a WYSIWYG editor is a barrier to reaching these goals?

Quite a few people seem to feel that if a designer/developer uses a WYSIWYG editor, then this person is not capable of writing HTML from scratch. This may be true in some cases, but I prefer to look at it a different way: If someone uses a WYSIWYG editor and can fully accomplish and deliver a functional website in a fraction of the time it takes to write all of the code from scratch - what could possibly be the problem? To me, this is just good business sense. Quickly and accurately satisfying your clients is your main goal. Why take 6 months to deliver a website when you can deliver the product in 2 - 3 months with the same exact functionality?

Using a WYSIWYG editor does not always mean "newbie" skill set. A great deal of the time, it means faster delivery, which means more satisfied clients and quicker profits for the designer/developer. I commend people who still want to write from scratch, but with all the available tools out there to make the process faster and simpler, why bother? If given the choice to either use a horse and buggy or drive a car, which one would you choose if you lived 45 minutes away with only 1 hour to get to your destination? If you think like I do, then the car would be your best choice in order to meet your deadline. Just because you write HTML from scratch does not mean that you will decrease testing time, nor will it make your website perfect the first time, but it will keep you from producing a few extra websites. Scenario:

There are 6 website projects and 2 website design companies. One designer will write HTML from scratch and the other will use a WYSIWYG editor. The website designer who wrote HTML from scratch finished 2 websites in a year. The designer that used the WYSIWYG editor completed the other 4 websites in a year with the same quality websites as the website designer that wrote the 2 websites from scratch. Who will the client choose when more websites need development?

As I stated earlier, it is not all bad to use a WYSIWYG editor if you already know HTML. Personally, I like the fast turnaround time that I have now as opposed to the days when I wrote HTML from scratch. For those of you who like to use WYSIWYG editors, keep it up and don't let anyone turn you around, but make sure you keep up with the W3C standards and watch for deprecated code.

About the Author:
Regina Stevens, owner of Keep It Simple Websites (http://keepitsimplewebsites.com). If you would like to send comments, email the name of the article and where you found the article to articles[@] itjsatlanta.com. Take the brackets out before sending me an email.

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