PanNotes

When delivering a CMS to a client a WYSIWYG editor can sometimes be the Achilles’ heel of the complete product. These editors were created as a means of allowing users to easily create HTML without actually knowing HTML. While the intent is great they usually produce more problems than solutions. I actually agree with most of the sentiments in Why NOT to install TinyMCE.

We do need to provide an easy way for users to update and create content on their website but the current breed of editors are not the solution. So what is? My thought on the matter has always been that users need to know at least a little bit about the system they are using. The CMS is not a word processor. It’s a different paradigm and that needs to be communicated to the users.

First World Technology in Third World Hands

As a tiny dotcom in a part of the world that sits on America’s doorsteps geographically but technologically is far removed, our experience giving clients an interface with the Internet is both rewarding and frustrating.

If nothing else, the engagement reveals that as much as they want access to this new media world, they refuse to leave behind old notions and processes, and their legacy systems. Critically, they have little desire to understand the implications for their business. The result is a strange mix of old and new thinking where ideologies clash and culture, corporate and general, is remixed.