WYSIWYG vs. Hand Coding, the Great Debate

From Jennifer Kyrnin, Your Guide to Web Design / HTML. FREE Newsletter. Sign Up Now!

What is So Great About Hand-Coding HTML?

In a newsletter I receive a recent thread asked the question "What is so great about Hand Coding?". The poster was curious as to why someone who could create wonderful pages with a WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) HTML editor, such as FrontPage would be overlooked in a job search, in favor of someone with direct HTML experience.

It is common for hiring managers and HR departments to prefer someone with direct HTML experience to someone who has only created Web pages with an editor.

In my own experience, I work at a company that used to market a WYSIWYG HTML editor. When I was in the job interview, I asked my manager if I would be required to use that editor when I built pages for the company. I was told that they preferred a developer who was comfortable outside of a visual editor and liked to work directly with HTML.

Do you WYSIWYG or HTML?