WYSIWYG?
What You See Is What You Get (WYSIWYG). But is it? When you use those words to describe an HTML editor like Dreamweaver, FrontPage, or any others that behave like a word processor and promise to produce beautiful web pages, you most certainly do NOT get what you see.
At various message boards I read, I hear about how new business owners want to save money by designing their own website; and they often ask for advice and recommendations on how to do that. They are then told to find a WYSIWYG editor that will allow them to “drag and drop” different elements onto their webpage. They are told to find web hosts that provide website “builders” where they can go in and add their content and images and have a website up and running in no time.
I suppose this is good advice IF:
*You don’t care whether or not your website operates properly in all browsers.
*You don’t care whether or not people with various physical disabilities can use your website.
*You don’t care whether or not search engines index your site efficiently and properly.
These editors are notorious for bloating websites with very unnecessary and sometimes incorrect code. These editors do not know how to optimize a website for search engines or usability. Only a good designer will have all the skills to do these things and more.
If you don’t know how to interpret what you see when you peek at HTML and/or CSS code, a WYSIWYG editor is not going to help you learn how to build websites. It’s always best to start by learning HTML in the raw. There are so many great tutorials out there to get started. I wholeheartedly recommend Killersites .
If you are a new business owner who needs a good website (and you DO need a GOOD site since so much of today’s business is advertised or conducted online), I would suggest you make the investment in yourself and your new business and hire a designer.
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