Posted by kchayka on 10/21/05 18:41

Michael Winter wrote:
>
> do we have a contender for the worst WYSIWYG software?

I nominate a DIY online service for #1: homestead.com

They provide their users with a Java-based editor that doesn't permit
anything except attempts at a pixel-perfect layout. All font sizes must
be absolute, all elements are absolutely positioned and sized (all in px
units, of course). The code is bloated with not only the usual
deprecated junk, but piles of inline styles setting fixed dimensions and
positions.

See the results yourself:
<URL:http://btautotransport.homestead.com/>
(Site chosen at random from homestead's Customer Sites page
<URL:http://www.homestead.com/~site/qslo/featuredsites.html>)

Document structure or visitor accessibility aren't considerations, thus
the resulting page is a disaster on both counts. The user has no access
to the generated source code either, but the type of people who use this
service aren't likely to know what to do with it anyway.

In homestead's help doc, they say that if a visitor complains about text
overlapping or other display issues, they should change their system
display settings to match homestead's "standard", then everything will
be peachy!

I once sent homestead an email pointing out the WAI guidelines regarding
authoring tools, but they were too clueless to get it.

My #2 pick is the similar service at yahoo. It is capable of making the
same mess, but at least the user can avoid some of it if they're mindful.

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