Taking a Giant Leap instead of a Small Step

  • The recent update to 2.0 has me thinking about the movie “The Aviator”, about the life of Howard Hughes. One of the main themes is that he didn’t look at simply achieving the next step, such as building an airplane to go a little higher than the previous, but to make the leap to the next logical level, such as flying completely above the weather in a comfortable, pressurized cabin. I’m offering the opinion that “TinyMCE” is small step in the right direction, but it’s not the leap to the next level needed to take blogging functionality where it ultimately needs to go.

    For a moment, try to divorce the benefits and functionality of “themes”–the overall look and feel of a blog–from posting–the publishing of content within individual posts. WP provides a very good basis for customizing the overall design. But other than the occasional “complete makeover”, a blog design is a one-time, major activity that is only occasionally revisited. The main, continual activity is posting content.

    I’m just throwing out the suggestion–the “challenge”, if you will–that the “next big leap” forward should be editing/creating content on the same level as a word processor. Yes, it will fit the formatting parameters of the overall site design, but just as a word processor allows you to do everything from scribble a note to write a novel and include just about any form of media wherever desired, so should posting content.

    We need the ability to be able to create ANY kind of content we wish, as we see fit, even if we only occasionally need it: Tables (even spreadsheets), images, audio, fonts, every iteration of formatting, etc., etc. so that while every post has the “look and feel” of the overall theme, the content can be created via a word processor-type interface that allows a post to be formatted with the ease and variety of choice that a word processor now provides.

    This is not a veiled complaint, just offering an opinion about the one thing I think would take blogging to the next level. If there were drop-down menus for inserting graphics, charts, tables, audio, etc., etc. along with the ability to format them like a word processor, blogging would make the next leap in the area that will ultimately matter the most: Quality of content. I also think it would be a better bridge to those that don’t care to ever create or tweak a theme but just want to create content. The word processor model is the most common “interface” out there.

    Just my two pennies’ worth.

Viewing 7 replies - 1 through 7 (of 7 total)

  • I hate word processors. I used to not hate them. I used to not hate them in the time before they tried to do everything and be all to all. I used to not hate them in the time before you actually had to take a course or read a book just to learn how to use the damn thing.

    One of the beauties of WP is that it is SIMPLE to use. I’m a web designer who often works with computer-challenged clients. If all this stuff was added to the interface they’d be lost, they wouldn’t use it and they’d curse me for money wasted. Personally, so I don’t have to go back in and fix broken sites, my plan is that if I use 2.0 for client installs of WP as a CMS, I’ll be turning off that fancy editor so they don’t break the layout with all the crap they can now add with that RTE turned on.

    If you need all that functionality out of the box, there are full fledged CMS out there that do it all. Don’t kill a good thing by making it into something it’s not.

    My two dollar’s worth is it’s better to have all these things added as plugins for those who need ’em and safely out of the way of those who’d be confused by them.

    Simplicity is bliss.

    …or you could take 5 minutes to learn Markdown or Textile, which enables one to compose a post faster than clicking horrid styling buttons.

    More UI bloat? No thanks.

    Thread Starter Servant

    (@servant)

    I’m still dreaming about this. Yes, the very first word processors were “simple” but we’d never go back to them. Someone at some point is going to make the leap to implement a “universal” publishing platform (not just text, but images, audio, etc.) and leave the other blogging platforms as distant a memory as WordStar, Display Write, XyWrite, Multimate, and VisiWord.

    Perhaps for WP 5.0?

    You’re kidding, right? What – you’re looking for the “one ring”? Hmmm. Maybe you ought to go talk to Sauron….

    I have to agree with kickass here ??
    I have found it easier to teach a computer-challenged client how to use the quicktags rather than let them screw up the design/layout by using the wysiwyg monster. (Don’t tell anybody: most of the time I don’t even let them know it exists…)
    Usually, they don’t need all those gizmos enlisted above, so just adding a few more quicktags if they have some special needs, works perfectly.

    Ayup – I’ve added extremely complex tables to the quicktags for a client in the financial industry….

Viewing 7 replies - 1 through 7 (of 7 total)
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