WYSIWYG vs WYSIWYM

Question

Which one is better and ideal in a web based application?

Edit:

Actually I am developing a community site. So the level of users may vary. Heard about XSS security issues with WYSIWYG editors. Also I am not familiar with WYSIWYM editors and its features. As far as I know the features in WYSIWYM editor is less compared to the other one. I figured one named as "WMD: The Wysiwym Markdown Editor". Its quite easy to use.

So security and ease of usability should be there. In such a situation which editor will be better.

Answer 1

Unless you are doing a tool for print layout (i.e. Indesign or maybe a mailing list printing tool) you are probably better to stick with WYSIWYM.

• It is likely to be easier to implement

• Web browsers are highly configurable and you may not have fine grained control over items like font size.

• The structure is explicit so rendering to different media is comparatively easy.

• It avoids the temptation on the part of users to over-design the document or whatever they are entering.

• Document structure facilitates indexing, table-of-contents generation and cross-referencing where this is relevant. Compare (for example) maintianing a large index in Word with doing in LaTeX or Framemaker.

• Anecdotal experience from LaTeX users (in particular) suggests that organising a document by structure is likely to produce a better document.