WYSIWYG

Updated: 11/16/2019 by Computer Hope
WYSIWYG in white lettering on a tablet screen.

Pronounced as wiz-zee-wig. WYSIWYG is short for What You See Is What You Get. The term was coined by Charles Simonyi in 1974. It describes an application that displays a file or document exactly as it would appear when printed or viewed. A good example is a WYSIWYG HTML editor, which lets you edit a web page with little or no HTML knowledge.

Tip

This term is WYSIWYG, not WYS1WYG, a common misspelling of WYSIWYG; the I (i) is not a 1 (one).

Tip

This first WYSIWYG text formatting program is considered to be Bravo.

Computer acronyms, Printer terms, Software terms, WYSIWYP