Teach Markup or use a WYSIWYG editor?

Posted by Atomiton on Stack Overflow See other posts from Stack Overflow or by Atomiton
Published on 2010-05-10T18:12:21Z Indexed on 2010/05/10 18:14 UTC
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wysiwyg

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wysiwym

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markup

When it comes to WYSIWYG editors WYSI rarely WYG. The problem I always have is when people paste in formatted text from word.

Ideally, what I'm looking for is a way for people to input text into the document while at the same time teaching them structure... I just don't know if that's a realistic goal ( compared to cut n' paste )

I'm curious if people have found using something other than WYSIWYG editors ( take SO, for example ) has worked for REAL WORLD USERS. I'm not talking about programmers, developers and experience internet users... I'm talking about your average user.

I'd be interested in best practices when it comes to getting users to enter content... and I'd love it if someone could point me to some good editors/examples.

there are lots of choices when it comes to WYSIWYG ( ckEditor, FreeTextBox, TinyMCE ) but I don't hear a lot about SO-like techniques.

Does adding that small barrier scares users away?

Is it too difficult to teach people to mark up their text?

Is it easier to teach them html?

Is a BBCode implementation a good idea?

What are some Pros/Cons to wysiwyg/markup.

What approach have others used?

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