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Essentially, there are two ways to write HTML – with a “What You See is What You Get” (WYSIWYG) editor or with a text editor. To be a professional website designer, I would recommend using a normal text editor. WYSIWYG editors sometimes insert code that isn’t needed – if you write the code yourself with a text editor, you can correct this.

WYSIWYG Editor Benefits

Ease
One of the best things about most WYSIWYG editors is that you can be up and running quickly. Most of these editors work like a typical Word processor, so there isn’t a lot of time spent learning a new program.

Speed
Unless you have been writing HTML for several years, most WYSIWYG editors will help you create Web pages faster.

HTML Validation
If you use a WYSIWYG editor, you can be sure that your HTML will work in most browsers and usually be accurate HTML (with some notable exceptions).

Other Features
Most WYSIWYG HTML editors offer additional features to make your site better or increase your productivity. For example, link checking, spell checkers, document weighting, JavaScript functions, DHTML tips, and more.

Text Editor Benefits

Flexibility
Once you have learned to write HTML with a text editor, you will be more conversant with what HTML can and cannot do. You will not be limited to the functions of the editor.

Portability
If you do HTML on a text editor you can make changes anywhere that you can get access to your pages. Most text editors are fairly similar across platforms, and if you use Notepad, that is available on all Windows machines.

Clean HTML
Many HTML editors add strange codes, tags, and attributes into the HTML. These can slow down the download of the page by adding extraneous characters, create pages that are only viewable by one browser, and add in unnecessary tags. By writing HTML in a text editor, you ensure that you only use HTML tags that you intend to use.

Originally posted 2012-05-26 12:00:42.