My Boss is Adamant about Using a WYSIWYG Editor to Code HTML. How do I Change his Mind? | Hacker News Reader

My Boss is Adamant about Using a WYSIWYG Editor to Code HTML. How do I Change his Mind?

4 pointsjackieackie8 comments

My Boss is Adamant about Using a WYSIWYG Editor to Code HTML/CSS. How do I Change his Mind? Any solid arguments with documentation would be greatly appreciated.

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Have him create an HTML document in MS Word or his WYSIWYG editor of choice with some basic formatting and image placements, and then compare how it looks in three different browsers. Show him the issues involved with troubleshooting the WYSIWYG HTML in a text editor.

Or you could show him this:

http://www.angelfire.com/super/badwebs/main.htm

So the advantage to WYSIWYG is instant gratification and automated coding. It's great for amateurs and if you're just posting to a form but it complicates site building because now you have crap in your files that you don't understand. To the extent you want to build something original and editable, you should avoid dynamic template editors -- they inevitably change three things whenever you change one thing. Most of what I've seen them produce is irrelevant or incidental to what I'm trying to accomplish. But if your boss only wants you to build something static with a few minor changes to a template, maybe he's right. Not all projects call for elegance, creativity and adaptability.

WYSIWYG editors aren't perfect and will sometimes produce non-valid HTML/XHTML. its also very difficult to make a very specific change to the structure or style. in only using a WYSIWYG editor, you're ceding control to the editor. your page looks like what it wants it to look like. if you want something more refined or exacting, you have to hand code.

I would go meta: If you're an experienced Web designer and the boss isn't, then he shouldn't be telling you want tools to use. On second thought, that probably won't work. Maybe try an argument from authority: Major Web sites such as the New York Times are all hand-coded.

Sad thing is, I have already shown him the New York Times is hand coded and he still leans towards WYSIWGS.

Obviously, if you consider it's a bad thing you shouldn't need our help to tell him why. Just tell him your good reasons.

Listen. I do not have the time to write out, what could be a, three page argument on this topic and then send that to my boss. Instead I wanted to get an array of opinions from different users here to make my argument that much stronger.

I have already mentioned that it give you more control over the code, hand coding will make the website load faster, it will make it easier to validate, and it will make it easier for a group of people to work on.

An explaination or links from respected CSS/HTML gurus would be greatly appreciated.

Your boss won't read a three page argument either. If he still isn't listening after you have made a brief argument it's because he doesn't trust you, not because your argument isn't good enough.

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