So... what's so bad about WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get... like Frontpage and Dream weaver) editors anyway? Chances are, if you use an WYSIWYG editor and you frequent web forums, you'll continually see people raving about how terrible it is to use one. For a long time, I never could figure out why. No one ever told me why. They just said it's better to code by hand. So are they bad to use?

No. They aren't bad to use. Is it better to not use one? Maybe. It depends on what you are doing. If you are just designing a few websites here and there for friends or what ever, WYSIWYG editors are great! Use it if it makes your life easier! But, if you are wanting to take web development seriously, do not use one.

Ok, why not? A few reasons:

1. It is much more difficult to use a WYSIWYG for a dynamic website. Much more difficult (if even possible).
2. Your html will be very difficult to follow.
3. Your website won't comply with standards.
4. Your website will have usability problems.
5. It is more difficult to make websites look the same in all browsers (because of a lack of standards and semantic html).
6. You can't harness the power of css... making websites harder to manage when there are multiple pages, along with other disadvantages.
7. Search engines can't work as well with your site.
8. The real experts don't use them (for good reasons).

Some of those problems don't exist when you use the better WYSIWYG editors (like dream weaver) properly. But few people use them properly... because to use them properly, you first must understand how to make websites properly by hand coding them. And by that time you'll prefer to hand code anyways.

So no, WYSIWYG editors aren't bad to use... unless you plan on doing web development as a job or what ever.

Joey