Editing HTML (section)

== WYSIWYG editors ==
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There are some [[WYSIWYG]] editors (''what you see is what you get''), in which the user lays out everything as it is to appear in the HTML document using a [[graphical user interface]] (GUI), often similar to [[word processor]]s. The editor renders the document rather than showing the code, so authors do not require extensive knowledge of HTML.

The WYSIWYG editing model has been criticized,<ref>Sauer, C.: WYSIWIKI&nbsp;– Questioning WYSIWYG in the Internet Age. In: Wikimania (2006)</ref><ref>Spiesser, J., Kitchen, L.: Optimization of HTML automatically generated by WYSIWYG programs. In: 13th International Conference on World Wide Web, pp. 355—364. WWW '04. ACM, New York, NY (New York, NY, U.S., May 17–20, 2004)</ref> primarily because of the low quality of the generated code; there are voices{{who|date=June 2020}} advocating a change to the [[WYSIWYM]] model (''what you see is what you mean'').

WYSIWYG editors remain a controversial topic because of their perceived flaws such as:
* Relying mainly on the layout as opposed to meaning, often using markup that does not convey the intended meaning but simply copies the layout.<ref>[http://xhtml.com/en/xhtml/reference/blockquote/ XHTML Reference: blockquote] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100325160356/http://xhtml.com/en/xhtml/reference/blockquote/ |date=2010-03-25 }}. Xhtml.com. Retrieved on 2012-02-16.</ref>
* Often producing extremely verbose and redundant code that fails to make use of the cascading nature of HTML and [[CSS]].
* Often producing ungrammatical markup, called [[tag soup]] or semantically incorrect markup (such as {{code|lang=html|code=<em>}} for italics).
* As a great deal of the information in HTML documents is not in the layout, the model has been criticized for its "what you see is all you get"-nature.<ref>[http://www.invisiblerevolution.net/ Doug Engelbart's INVISIBLE REVOLUTION]. Invisiblerevolution.net. Retrieved on 2012-02-16.</ref>