[thelist] WYSIWYG editors (was: WebReview responds to WaSP)

[John Dowdell]

Sidenote: The Dreamweaver team itself has always demurred on use of the
term "WYSIWYG", because it's a non-sequitur with flow-based documents...
instead "visual editor" has been the standard term for what Dreamweaver
does, thanks.

(And yes, it's great to know HTML, and how browsers handle it... for info
on accessibility, see http://www.macromedia.com/accessibility/ )



> I have just started using ImageReady to "create" my code based on
> designs created in photoshop....hand-coding is getting old to me
> so I am looking for a faster way to create...

FreeHand can often be faster for getting conceptual approval on a site:
it's editable vectors rather than frozen pixels... offers multiple pages on
a pasteboard for quick navigation and comparison... exports directly to
basic HTML as a starting point for actual web work... offers updateable
repeating elements as symbols for quick site-wide changes... has
layout-style layers for quickly changing the overall viewing options...
offers site-wide search'n'replace of text and graphic elements, as well as
updateable styles... has stronger text options than Photoshop... can export
individual graphic elements as GIF/JPG or SWF or whatever.

Both tools are helpful for quick concept work, because [emphasis] you avoid
getting lost in HTML details [/emphasis]  -- just as with a cocktail napkin
sketch, it's easier to focus on ideas than implementation when working in a
quick design medium instead of the final delivery format. FreeHand is a bit
more tuned to quickly laying out a site design though... Photoshop is more
concerned with the details of the appearance in one particular
illustration.

But whatever works for you is great, of course... FreeHand is just usually
a faster and more flexible way to accomplish this type of task than
Photoshop and ImageReady would be, that's all.

Can't replace learning markup and browsers and the rest, though.... ;-)

jd





John Dowdell, Macromedia Tech Support, San Francisco CA US
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