WYSIWYG Web Design Software

 

“What you see is what you get!”  It’s a classic catchphrase that would have been readily recognized in American culture in the 1970s.  Comedian Flip Wilson starred in an hour long variety show called the Flip Wilson show.  One of the characters, Geraldine Jones (actually Flip Wilson in drag) is a liberated, sassy woman who quotes the catchphrase to justify her oddball behavior.  Nearly forty years later, the classic line has taken a brand new meaning in the computer software world.  The phrase, abbreviated WYSIWYG, refers to software that lets you see what your creating as you design it.  In other words, instead of designing a web page by looking at the HTML code, you see the site as it would appear in a Web browser.  The webmaster then uses toolbar icons and drop-down menu options to change the look of the page.

There are advantages and disadvantages to using WYSIWYG web design software. 

Pros:

  • You don’t have to know a single line of HTML code or any other programming language to make gorgeous web sites.  WYSIWYG lets you see the page unfold.
  • With using straight coding, what you type looks nothing like the final result. This means
  • Letting WYSIWYG do the coding ensures (to a degree) that proper HTML syntax will be followed.
  • You can create a page much, much faster with software that does the coding for you.  Creating a complex table can be done in seconds.  Using coding, it might take a half hour to create.
  • It frees you to focus on the look of the page instead of being bogged down by making sure that you’ve included closing tags for each opening tag.

Cons:

  • WYSIWYG software typically sticks in extra code that isn’t needed, resulting in slow page loads, crashes, and difficult updating.
  • Nothing beats making it yourself.  Letting the program doing it means you won’t become more well versed in HTML.  This may not seem like a big deal, but the best WYSIWYG program can create quirky code sometimes.  It helps to know how to go in and fix it.
  • Once you’ve become accustomed with a certain program, you may never want to switch—even if it’s in favor of a program with more functionality. 

You may be interested in knowing the method I use in designing a web page.  I prefer WYSIWYG web design software to applications made for straight code.  My personal favorite is Microsoft Front Page (discontinued in 2006 in favor of Microsoft Expression Web).  I use it to create the page, then modify the underlying HTML as needed.  This saves me time, but still allows me to have control over the smallest details of my site.

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