WYSIWYG

References

WYSIWYG

computing

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Last updated

July 15, 2026

Quick Summary

WYSIWYG, an acronym for "what you see is what you get," describes software interfaces that accurately display the final appearance of a document as it is being created. This technology eliminates the need for users to learn complex formatting codes, allowing them to focus on design.12

WYSIWYG is commonly found in word processors and desktop publishing programs, and more recently in web editors and other applications for creating electronic documents. It relies on high-resolution computer graphics displays to show how text and graphics will appear when printed or published. Before WYSIWYG, text-editing programs offered basic editing but lacked this visual preview capability.13

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Microsoft Word
Like WordStar, Word was WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get), meaning that formatting tags were hidden and whatever a document looked like on a user’s computer screen was how it would look when printed—or at least semi-WYSIWYG, as screen fonts were not of the same quality as…
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Like WordStar, Word was WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get), meaning that formatting tags were hidden and whatever a document looked like on a user’s computer screen was how it would look when printed—or at least semi-WYSIWYG, as screen fonts were not of the same quality as…
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graphical user interface
PARC
…is what you get,” or WYSIWYG. The computer scientists at PARC, notably Alan Kay, also designed the Star interface to embody a metaphor: a set of small pictures, or “icons,” were arranged on the screen, which was to be thought of as a virtual desktop. The icons represented officelike activities…
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…is what you get,” or WYSIWYG. The computer scientists at PARC, notably Alan Kay, also designed the Star interface to embody a metaphor: a set of small pictures, or “icons,” were arranged on the screen, which was to be thought of as a virtual desktop. The icons represented officelike activities…
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word processor
…is what you get” (WYSIWYG; pronounced wi-zē-wig).
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…is what you get” (WYSIWYG; pronounced wi-zē-wig).
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Charles Simonyi
…PARC)—where he created the first WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) text editor—from 1972 to 1980, Simonyi joined the Microsoft Corporation in 1981. While at Microsoft he led the development of the widely used software applications Microsoft Word and Microsoft Excel. In 2002 he left Microsoft to found…
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…PARC)—where he created the first WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) text editor—from 1972 to 1980, Simonyi joined the Microsoft Corporation in 1981. While at Microsoft he led the development of the widely used software applications Microsoft Word and Microsoft Excel. In 2002 he left Microsoft to found…
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