WYSIWYG
WYSIWYG, short for “what you see is what you get”, refers to editors that display content during editing in a form closely resembling the final result
What it means, how it is used and where it comes up, with its related concepts.
What it is and how it works
The first editors of this kind appeared in word processors in the 1970s and 1980s, when the norm was to work with formatting codes and not see the result until printing. Today they are common in word processors, layout tools, email editors and CMSs.
WYSIWYG editing contrasts with editing code or markup languages such as Markdown directly, where the structure is written and the result seen afterwards. WYSIWYG editors make the work easier for non-technical people, although they can generate unnecessary code or reduce control over the semantic structure of the content.
Also known as
Visual editor
Topics