Intro to WYSIWYG
What-you-see-is-what-you-get is essential for advertising layout. The program or editor is what allows an interface to create a graphical user interface (GUI) or page of text so that the creator can see what the end result will look like while the interface or document is being created. A WYSIWYG editor can be contrasted with more traditional editors that require the developer to enter descriptive codes and do not permit an immediate way to see the results of the markup. Depending on experience, the developer can decide what type of editor to use.Some WYSIWYG editors are available (e.g. Claris Home Page or Adobe Pagemill, both for Windows and Mac). A true WYSIWYG editor, such as Microsoft FrontPage (which will be demonstrated in class) or Adobe's PageMill, hides the markup and allows the developer to think entirely in terms of how the content should appear. While WYSIWYGs are intended for ease of use and not requiring HTML knowledge, the latest editors are designed for professional developers too. The best ones let you customize their interfaces to match your needs, and they don't make your code when you import existing Web pages.
We have tested many WYSIWYG editors, and currently there are over 450 editors designed for many different platforms: 16bit, 32bit, Unix based, Windows based and Mac. Before you decide to buy any WYSIWYG editor, I recommend downloading a demo and almost every vendor offers one and see how it works on the pages you need to produce.
