Describes a user interface under which "What You See Is All You Get";
an unhappy variant of {WYSIWYG}. Visual, `point-and-shoot'-style
interfaces tend to have easy initial learning curves, but also to
lack depth; they often frustrate advanced users who would be better
served by a command-style interface. When this happens, the
frustrated user has a WYSIAYG problem. This term is most often used
of editors, word processors, and document formatting programs.
WYSIWYG `desktop publishing' programs, for example, are a clear win
for creating small documents with lots of fonts and graphics in them,
especially things like newsletters and presentation slides. When
typesetting book-length manuscripts, on the other hand, scale changes
the nature of the task; one quickly runs into WYSIAYG limitations,
and the increased power and flexibility of a command-driven formatter
like {TeX} or Unix's {troff} becomes not just desirable but a
necessity. Compare {YAFIYGI}.
[glossary]
[Reference(s) to this entry by made by: {WYSIWYG}]