WYSIWYG. This acronym means what you see is what you get. Whatever you make the content look like on a WordPress site, it will look exactly like that. Over time, the WordPress WYSIWYG has grown a lot. There used to be minimal features and was presumably harder to use compared to today. There are many features than have been added over time which have made it easier for users to use WordPress. Compared to WordPress, CMS like Shopify and Wix are all basically the same. They can help you to make detailed changes to your website and edit the site in real time. The only real difference is the pricing for these applications. WordPress’ most notable functions of their WYSIWYG are the ability to easily change the theme, the pricing, regular updates, and just the overall easy drag-and-drop process incorporated in the WYSIWYG.
The WYSIWYG is used for page layout because you can change the layout of a page directly using it. Whatever you want the site to look like, you can just change the way it looks and the site will look exactly the way it did when you left the editing browser. A lot can be done through the WYSIWYG without actually touching the source code. You can drag and drop pre-existing templates and pre-made buttons onto your webpage without writing the code for that. You can add images just by dragging the image to the image tag. Text can be written to the page just by clicking and changing a p or h tag.
Even with all of those cool and easy to use features, you might want to use your own code on the site. You can do this by clicking a tag and changing the HTML. You can change the text color, font, size, border, and more through the actual code. WYSIWYG plugins make it even easier for someone to edit and create a website. They add more features than there are by default. There are backend and frontend plugins. These can be free or cost money.
AI can influence future WYSIWYG updates by adding features that incorporate AI. For example, there could be a button to generate a block of text or image with a certain prompt. The WYSIWYG doesn’t give users the same level and control than actual HTML and CSS files would offer. It’s hard to make the website responsive. It can slow down websites and create unnecessary code. There can be accessibility issues because it is impossible/really hard to add accessibility through a WYSIWYG. Future plans for WYSIWYG are adding AI, VR, AR, and increasing the performance/speed of a website.
Jazzelle Wolverson 