View source for WYSIWYM

{{Short description|Acronym for "what you see is what you mean"}}
{{For|the interaction technique|WYSIWYM (interaction technique)}}
[[File:ViewsIceberg.svg|upright=1.5|thumb|Different views for content authoring]]

In [[computing]], '''What You See Is What You Mean''' ('''WYSIWYM,''' {{IPAc-en|ˈ|w|ɪ|z|i|w|ɪ|m}}) is a [[paradigm]] for editing a [[structured document]]. It is an adjunct to the better-known [[WYSIWYG]] (What You See Is What You Get) paradigm, which displays the result of a formatted document as it will appear on screen or in print—without showing the descriptive code underneath.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/WYSIWYG-what-you-see-is-what-you-get|title=What is WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get)? - Definition from WhatIs.com|website=WhatIs.com|language=en|access-date=2019-07-23}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.semantic-web-journal.net/system/files/swj479.pdf|title=WYSIWYM -- Integrated Visualization, Exploration and Authoring of Un-structured and Semantic Content|website=www.semantic-web-journal.net|language=en|access-date=2024-04-24}}</ref>

In a WYSIWYM editor, the user writes the contents in a structured way, marking the content according to its meaning, its significance in the document, and leaves its final appearance up to one or more separate [[style sheet language|style sheets]]. In essence, it aims to accurately display the contents being conveyed, rather than the actual formatting associated with it.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://edutechwiki.unige.ch/en/WYSIWYM|title=WYSIWYM - EduTech Wiki|website=edutechwiki.unige.ch|access-date=2019-07-23}}</ref>

For example, in a WYSIWYM document, one would manually mark text as the title of the document, the name of a section, the caption associated with a figure, or the name of an author; this would in turn allow one element, such as section headings, to be rendered as large bold text in one style sheet, or as red center justified text in another, without further manual intervention.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.lyx.org/WhatIsLyX|title=LyX {{!}} What is LyX?|website=www.lyx.org|access-date=2019-07-23}}</ref> More often than not, this requires the [[semantics|semantic]] structure of the document to be decided in advance before writing it. The editor also needs a system for exporting structured content to generate the document's final format, following the indicated structure.

The main advantage of this system is the total [[separation of content and presentation]]: users can structure and write the document once, rather than repeatedly alternating between the two modes of presentation—an approach which comes with its own [[Task switching (psychology)#Switch cost|switch cost]]. And since the rendering of formatting is left to the export system, this also makes it easier to achieve consistency in design as well.

==Document processors==
Unlike an unstructured, fixed-presentation document, a [[document processor]] rather than a [[word processor]] must be used for WYSIWYM. The first document processor which articulated<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.mail-archive.com/lyx-announce@lists.lyx.org/msg00011.html|title=Public release of LyX version 1.0.0|website=www.mail-archive.com|access-date=2019-04-23}}</ref> itself through the WYSIWYM term was [[LyX]] document processor, although similar concepts can be traced back to earlier publishing systems such as [[LaTeX]], [[Interleaf|TPS]] (modeled on pioneering experiments at [[PARC (company)|Xerox PARC]]) and [[FrameMaker]].

For example, in FrameMaker, a document may be authored (i.e., viewed and edited) using two possible page views, the styling tags (called "formats") and contents of a document reside in "body pages", while structure and presentation are defined by "master pages".{{efn|Strictly speaking, this explanation of FrameMaker's page views applies only to so-called "unstructured documents". These page views are not to be confused with the commonly known FrameMaker modes used for authoring different types of documents. The mode for unstructured documents is called "Unstructured FrameMaker" or simply "FrameMaker" whereas the mode for the so-called "structured documents" is called "Structured FrameMaker". Starting from FrameMaker&nbsp;12, it also offers a third mode, called "FrameMaker XML Author".<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://help.adobe.com/en_US/FrameMaker/12.0/Help/Using/index.html|title=Adobe FrameMaker 12|website=help.adobe.com|access-date=2019-04-23}}</ref>}} Multiple such documents can be linked together and programmed conditionally for a variety of applications. These elements can then be exported to corresponding tags which preserve some or all of their functionality in a [[markup language]] such as [[XML]]/[[HTML]]/[[CSS]] and [[PDF]], or directly rendered down for final presentation in anything from [[PostScript]] to raw text.

A different approach to the WYSIWYM philosophy is taken by [[GNU TeXmacs]], which combines the on-screen representation of the document structure with an almost-faithful WYSIWYG rendering.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=van der Hoeven|first=Joris|date=2001|title=GNU TeXmacs, A free, structured, wysiwyg and technical text editor|url=http://cahiers.gutenberg.eu.org/fitem?id=CG_2001___39-40_39_0|journal=Cahiers Gutenberg|volume=39-40|pages=39–50}}</ref>

==In web environments==
Major software vendors have integrated web-page creation features into their popular [[WYSIWYG]] products to increase their utility. Users can create an [[HTML]] web page in a word processor with no knowledge of HTML, but like nearly all [[Integrated development environment|IDE]] authored or handwritten web markup, these tools' automated analysis of the source format rarely accounts for a distinction between HTML's content and its presentation through means such as CSS during output.

Such fixed-presentation HTML generators have been criticized, primarily because of the [[Code bloat|bloatedness]] and low quality of their code,<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20100326165948/http://www.i3g.hs-heilbronn.de/attach/Ver%C3%B6ffentlichungen/What+you+see+is+Wiki.pdf Sauer, C.: WYSIWIKI - Questioning WYSIWYG in the Internet Age]. In: Wikimania (2006)</ref><ref>[http://www.iw3c2.org/WWW2004/docs/1p355.pdf Spiesser, J., Kitchen, L.: Optimization of HTML automatically generated by WYSIWYG programs]. In: 13th International Conference on World Wide Web, pp. 355-364. WWW '04. ACM, New York, NY (New York, NY, USA, May 17–20, 2004)</ref><ref>{{cite web |date=2010-10-29 |author=de Vries, D.J. |title=RenovatioCMS - An innovative view |url=http://www.renovatiocms.com/?RVGET_document=Vision |access-date=2010-10-29 }}</ref> and there are voices advocating for changes to the WYSIWYM model.<ref>{{cite web|author=Roger Johansson |url=http://www.456bereastreet.com/archive/200612/forget_wysiwyg_editors_use_wysiwym_instead/ |title=456BereaStreet |publisher=456BereaStreet |access-date=2012-08-02}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|author=Peter Krantz |url=http://www.standards-schmandards.com/2006/wysiwym/ |title=standards-schmandards |publisher=standards-schmandards |date=2006-12-05 |access-date=2012-08-02}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ts0.com/2007/09/semantic-rich-text-editor.asp |title=Thom Shannon's blog |publisher=Ts0.com |date=2007-09-19 |access-date=2012-08-02 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120207014335/http://www.ts0.com/2007/09/semantic-rich-text-editor.asp |archive-date=2012-02-07 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

One example of a WYSIWYM Web page editor is [[WYMeditor]].<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.wymeditor.org/ | title=WYMeditor: web-based XHTML editor | access-date=27 May 2011}}</ref> In this editor, the structure of the documents is defined by the class attributes of HTML elements. These classes also allow the final appearance of the document to be applied. Although WYMeditor follows a WYSIWYM model, the document format is always HTML, so the new structures to be defined are limited to new classes, and the final document will always be built by applying presentational elements to these classes.

Other [[Content management system|CMSs]] are moving in the direction of providing some WYSIWYM interface for their users editing content.

==See also==
*[[Comparison of document-markup languages]]
*[[Lightweight markup language]]
*[[List of document markup languages]]
*[[Single-source publishing]]

==Notes==
{{notelist}}

==References==
{{reflist|30em}}

[[Category:User interfaces]]