Re: HTML editor: does everyone need to be on the same page?
Secondly, I think the attitude that everyone on the writing team should be
using the same tool to produce code with is dangerous; proprietary WYSIWYG
editors almost always impose idiosyncratic code that can render your
finished product accessible only to a specialized audience.
While you're right that proprietary tools often add idiosyncratic code, it's an overstatement that this code reduces accessibility. It can have some unexpected side-effects, but usually the code can still be parsed by your average browser.
But the real problem is not so much a single set of idiosyncratic code as the results when a mix occurs. I once had the misfortune to work with HTMl code that had been passed through PageMill, Front Page, and Netscape Composer. At this late date, I couldn't tell you what each one added, but the overall effect was horrendous, especially when I tried to get a consistent display in different browsers. In the end, I ended up removing all the idiosyncratic code, a process that took up far more time than was saved by using a WYSIWYG editor.
Under these circumstances, settling on one tool is sensible. You only have one set of idiosyncratic code to worry about, and you have a chance of knowing what it is if you want to remove it.
Needless to say, a far better solution would be to work with tools that didn't add junk. If input is slower, then editing and cleanup might be faster than with a WYSIWYG tool. However, in many shops, I don't think that this solution would be considered, so settling on a single WYSIWYG tool is a reasonable alternative.
However, a shop shouldn't simply settle on a single tool, but a single version and release of that tool as well. As we all know, a certain large, proprietary company has a habit of undermining its own arguments by changing with each release the functionality of the very tools that it urges everyone to use for consistency's sake.
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Re: HTML editor: does everyone need to be on the same page?: From: Stegall, Sarah
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