

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

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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ilamont
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>

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ryanmahoski
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.

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noodle
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.

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wmf
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.

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

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corentin
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.

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jackieackie
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.

~~~
lacker
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.

