WYSIWYG, "What You See is What You
Get," was originally used in the early days of word processing software to indicate the
way in which a document would appear on-screen or in print. Pre-WYSIWYG word processing applications relied on different "modes" for various actions, such as editing and viewing. At that
time, you couldn'
t "see" exactly the
way a document would look until you printed it or viewed it (outside of edit mode). With the creation of WYSIWYG word processors, users could see exactly the
way a document would look on-screen or in print while editing it.
Today, the term is used frequently on the Internet for
special text editors that provide rich editing functionality, used in creating Web sites, online email messages, and the like.
Some examples include:
- Microsoft Word
- Macromedia Dreamweaver
