Bloggers have flooded the world wide web, that almost anyone can be instant journalists. Social sites like friendster.com and multiply.com, and blogging sites like blogspot.com and blogdrive.com, have made it easier for any internet user to have their own sites and feel free to write their two cents or so on almost anything. In coming up with one’s own website in terms of visuals, ready-made tools would be available for the blogger or the “online journalist” to manipulate the look of his/her site by following step-by-step instructions. This is the job of the WYSIWYG (what-you-see-is-what-you-get) programs. This is where what you modify in the processor is exactly what would appear in the webpage.

But this has been challenged with learning the basics of webpage-building through manual-coding using an html editor like Notepad™. Here, the online user has to learn certain tags and attributes to enter into a text editor, unlike the visual directness of WYSIWYG programs, that have corresponding effects on the actual look of the webpage.

The debate is on which page-building method is better and beneficial, and which is more convenient.

At first, it may look like the WYSIWYG is what we need to support our fast-paced demands. The look is readily there and easily modified. But it pays to actually know what happens behind the webpages. In plain html text-editing, you not only see what is in there; you also learn why.

Knowledge of hand-coding is foundational. In the absence of a WYSIWYG program, people who know hand-coding would have a greater edge over those who just rely on the visuals. According to Jennifer Kyrin, (webdesign.about.com), people who hand-code show an ability to “go beyond the tools to create their pages. I think there are more possibilities in hand-coding because you move your way around your page once you’ve mastered the codes, while the WYSIWYG programs do the script for you, and you are left to just behold what comes out of just “feeding” it.

Text editors can ignite an interest in advanced page-building. Once you learn how the tags work, you tend to play with it. I remember my idiotic amazement when I first hand-coded an html page – one could hear the oohs in the classroom I was in. In a way, it is really gratifying that you have a handle on the page you are working on, instead of just relying on a software program.

Webpage-making programs may emerge from here and there, but not everyone can access them. But almost anyone can learn how to hand-code, and it pays to know the basics just in case advanced programs fail.

Back to top
Back to articles