Support » Requests and Feedback » True WYSYWYG Editing & Printing

  • bbhank

    (@bbhank)


    This is a topic to gather input from folks who need, and/or, want, to get what we see in the editor in WordPress, to be the same, on the screen, as well as, from the printer.

    Whether this is rocket science or not is not the issue. It is well established that getting on screen exactly what you see in your editor, i.e., WYSIWYG, and printing what you see on screen, and/or in your editor, is not well supported.

    Nevertheless, there is a need. At the user end is also the need to have the ability to enter their text and print what They see.

    Let’s get it done.

    If you are saying it can’t be done – Please explain exactly and succinctly Why!

    And NO, it is not too much to ask. There are a lot of uses for this. I’m hammering on finding ways to do this, too.

Viewing 14 replies - 1 through 14 (of 14 total)
  • esmi

    (@esmi)

    Can you be a little more specific? There are many aspects of this that are controlled by your theme. The printing of your site’s pages is definitely controlled – 100% – by your theme although there are technical limits to how much any designer can control printing. Web and print have never really gone well together.

    Your theme can also control how your pages are displayed in the WordPress Visual editor by means of a special stylesheet (editor-style.css). So, all in all, it might be best if you could indicate which theme(s) you are using.

    mythusmage

    (@mythusmage)

    Regarding editor-style.css

    Could you give us some idea at what needs to be amended to allow the editor to display content as it will be exhibited in a post or page? Can this be done through any custom CSS plugin or Jetpack?

    Thanks much.

    esmi

    (@esmi)

    Could you give us some idea at what needs to be amended to allow the editor to display content as it will be exhibited in a post or page?

    as you may appreciate, this is completely theme-dependant, so your best course is to contact the theme’s developer about it;

    Can this be done through any custom CSS plugin or Jetpack?

    No – it has to be part of the theme.

    Thread Starter bbhank

    (@bbhank)

    Looking at producing a theme independent block that prints EXACTLY as it looks on the page. I can deal with not having WYSIWYG editing but pages MUST print as seen on screen. Not being able to print content exactly as seen has been, and is, a major shortcoming with WordPress, and needs to be amended, improved, and/or fixed.

    Lets face it – As wide as the possibilities are with php, and given the strength of WordPress, not much is impossible. We just have to figure out HOW to make it do our bidding. HTML also is very unfriendly to anything WYSIWYG and has to be force fed, shoehorned, into printing what you see.

    I have been experimenting with very stripped down themes, starting without style sheets, in a bottom up approach. All work is done in the code editor with the WordPress visual editor turned off. The results are encouraging.

    If you are a naysayer with the premise is that something is not possible, think about it. The human mind is too strong, php is too good a tool, and WordPress too versatile, to say that doing something is “impossible”. Programmers, developers, code writers, do the seemingly “impossible” constantly. If they didn’t, there would be no WordPress, no php, no world as we know it, at all.

    Success First, Not Failure First.

    Thread Starter bbhank

    (@bbhank)

    Two More Tools That Help WYSIWYG Happen.

    A good tool for setting up columns is Column-Matic, a plug-in. This allows some theme independent control over positioning.

    Output to pdf is a preferred method of printing due to its universal acceptance and transparency. A pdf will print what you see on almost any platform and printer. There are many plug-ins that generate pdf files. Print me and SD PDF Template Customizer have shown the most promise so far in their abilities to be customized and ease of use. These come closer to giving you what you see on the page when printed.

    Note: All work here is done with the visual editor turned off.

    Thread Starter bbhank

    (@bbhank)

    Three More Tools That Help WYSIWYG Happen

    The use of tables is another tool that helps print what you see. There is a school that deplores the use of tables but that’s OK. Here, what works, rules, due to the nature of the issue.

    css is a major tool also but is of more use after placement of text and objects.

    html itself can be tailored to do its thing within WordPress, giving one more placement options as well as styling.

    Getting closer to real WYSIWYG is being accomplished by stripping down the chosen theme, then building it back up piece by piece, according to how the final output is to look. When a variant of the main theme, or another theme altogether, is used, multiple themes can are facilitated by employing a theme switching plug in.

    Moderator Jan Dembowski

    (@jdembowski)

    Forum Moderator and Brute Squad

    These are interesting ideas but have you considered getting involved in the actual coding? You can always contribute a patch.

    As Emsi had said the specifics for how the HTML is displayed is a direct function of your theme’s CSS. You really can’t generalize the Visual Editor for all scenarios. The theme’s editor style sheet helps but that would be different for each theme.

    http://codex.wordpress.org/Function_Reference/add_editor_style

    Ideas are interesting but it’s code that drives your idea forward. 😉

    Thread Starter bbhank

    (@bbhank)

    In answer to the question of what needs to be amended to the editor for it to give what you see in it on the screen: The editor itself is what needs to be trashed and replaced with one that actually gives what you see. There are none at this time that even come close to true WYSIWYG.

    A work around is to use a good html editor and import the result into WordPress with the visual editor disabled, otherwise it will change your code.

    Thread Starter bbhank

    (@bbhank)

    Why I was looking for work arounds is that I am not a code writer beyond some html. Note the methods and tools proposed here require little to no actual code writing. Since I am not a code writer, like many, if not most, folks, the approach here is from a none code writing perspective.

    This “patch” is a set of methods, not some universal code. We can agree for right now that no universal code has been presented here that locks the page seen to the printed copy. That’s not saying it doesn’t exist and/or can’t be done, just that it hasn’t been presented here. There seems to be no ONE solution that can cause WordPress to print WYSIWYG, so a combination of methods has been the option.

    The good is that in tandem these methods start to open doors toward getting that print that looks like the page on screen.

    If there is some universal code that can make WordPress print exactly what is on screen then it’ll take a much better coder than me to make it so.

    Thread Starter bbhank

    (@bbhank)

    Forward step: Some of the pdf writers have the ability to come close to WYSIWYG. Nuff sed.

    What we need is WYTIWYG. What You Type Is What You Get.

    Stop mangling html, css and javascript. WYSIWYG is evil.

    Syntax highlighting html, css and javascript plain text editor please, and do not change it when I post it. I mean what I type. WordPress is used by technical web developers not non-technical bloggers. The easier they try to make it for non-technical users, the harder it becomes to use for technical users.

    Stop. The. Madness.

    Thread Starter bbhank

    (@bbhank)

    Seeing what you have in the edit screen and having it match what you get on the page is one issue. Having that print as seen on that page is another. These are separate issues. We wish it were the same all the way through but we don’t live in an ideal world.

    Part of the problem is generated by the fact that WordPress is primarily used by bloggers and Not technical web developers. That’s why the focus is on plug-ins and themes as opposed to programming – To make it easy for those who aren’t, and don’t want to become programmers in any degree – don’t want to see code, Period. Not many humans want to be programmers.

    The technical side also exists and is heavily populated with programmers. There’s no madness, just two different needs served by two different groups of individuals.

    And what’s “evil” about a process that has no intelligence of its own? Please explain. WYSIWYG is what you make it. It’s difficult to obtain and there are those who want and have need of it!

    Contribution(s) to solution(s) is/are appreciated.

    Moderator Ipstenu (Mika Epstein)

    (@ipstenu)

    🏳️‍🌈 Advisor and Activist

    WordPress is constantly working on a better writing interface, including better ‘what I write is what my site looks like.’ There are initiatives and groups working on those problems right now.

    You can look at https://make.wordpress.org/core/features-as-plugins/ to see the current ones (CEUX is the closest to what you’ve described, but is on-hold for a few reasons).

    WordPress is used by technical webdevs, they’re perhaps not as noisy as the bloggers, but probably because they are able to solve much of their technical issues on their own 🙂 This is not to mean that the tech sort aren’t working on WP and don’t see that as a problem, we do. We hate having to explain weird stuff to non-techs, and if we can get a real wysiwyg environment, it’s a win-win for everyone!

    Thread Starter bbhank

    (@bbhank)

    Thank you Mika. Good to see there is work being done on this.

    The issue of getting what you see in the editor to be the same on screen is also, and has long been, a problem in html editing. A lot of work has been done, but still a lot to be done here. The other issue is to be able to print exactly what is on screen. Having given up on the visual editors due to the fact that they make unwanted changes in your code, I have only the problem of making what I have on the page print exactly as seen. I am looking at hacking various pdf printers as possible solutions for this.

Viewing 14 replies - 1 through 14 (of 14 total)
  • The topic ‘True WYSYWYG Editing & Printing’ is closed to new replies.