WYSIWYG or plain-text CMS editing?

Finding the Right Balance for Your CMS UsersWhen configuring a content‑management system (CMS), the choice between a WYSIWYG (What‑You‑See‑Is‑What‑You‑Get) editor and a plain‑text interface has far‑reaching implications for both usability and brand consistency.

Choosing the right editor for a WordPress site is more than a matter of preference; it shapes how contributors create content and how reliably the design stays on‑brand.

A WYSIWYG editor offers immediate visual feedback, allowing non‑technical contributors to format headings, lists, images and links without learning markup. This lowers the barrier to entry and speeds up publishing cycles, which is ideal for marketing teams, bloggers and volunteers who need to focus on message rather than syntax. However, the very freedom it provides can jeopardise design integrity if users apply arbitrary styles, embed unsupported fonts or insert excessive inline CSS.

Plain‑text editing, typically paired with markdown or a lightweight markup language, forces contributors to concentrate on structure rather than appearance. It encourages clean, semantically correct HTML once the content is rendered, reducing the risk of broken layouts and inconsistent branding. The trade‑off is a steeper learning curve and slower visual verification, which may deter less‑tech‑savvy users.

Striking a pragmatic compromise

• Default to WYSIWYG with a curated toolbar. Include essential formatting – headings (H2‑H4), bold/italic, ordered/unordered lists, blockquotes, hyperlinks and image insertion.
• Restrict custom CSS. Disallow arbitrary style attributes, font-family, font-size and color declarations; instead provide a predefined palette of brand colours and typographic scales.
• Sanitise HTML. Always strip potentially harmful tags such as <script>, <iframe> and <object>, and limit allowed attributes to those required for accessibility (e.g., alt, title).
• Offer a “source” view. Power users can fine‑tune markup, but changes are still filtered through the sanitisation layer.

By granting enough flexibility for expressive, on‑brand content while enforcing strict formatting rules, you protect the site’s visual cohesion and security without alienating contributors. The result is a CMS like WordPress that feels both powerful and responsibly managed.