Most web page authoring software like Dreamweaver—or even blog publishing systems like Blogger or WordPress—all come with WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) mode, which formats web content without exposing the HTML and CSS behind it. But even in 2008, lots of web authors turn off WYSIWYG and just hand-code their own markup—even at the NY Times. Mac news site TidBITS reports:
The New York Times's design director Khoi Vinh noted in a recent reader Q&A segment on the Web site, "It's our preference to use a text editor, like HomeSite, TextPad or TextMate, to 'hand code' everything, rather than to use a wysiwyg (what you see is what you get) HTML and CSS authoring program, like Dreamweaver. We just find it yields better and faster results."
I'm writing this very post using raw HTML instead of WYSIWYG mode myself, because it gives me a lot more control (and I'm comfortable writing HTML). What about the rest of you bloggers and web writers out there? Has web authoring software gotten smart enough to hide HTML tags from you and still do a good job, or is hand-coding still the best way to go? Let us know what you do in the comments.
Handcoding HTML Is Still in Vogue [TidBITS via steverubel]
Comments
Post new comment