WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) authoring tools can also be called blank screen tools. These are tools that allow the creator to design a page of text including layout in a visual mode. They became popular in the late 1980s with the advent of laser printers. Graphic artists prefer WYSIWYG tools since they can control the placement of every object on a page. These tools were not developed with a web paradigm. In graphic design fields, the content creator wants complete control over the precise positioning of each bit of their work. Since they control the final display size for the product, a WYSIWYG tool is the best option for them. However, in the web world, it is the end-user/student who controls the size and shape of the display (browser) area, rather than the content creator. This means that during the design phase, the web course creator is served best by concentrating on the instructional content of the material rather than on the precise visual layout for the material. The visual layout needs to be one that will adapt well to whatever display size the end-user selects for it. In this environment, a WYSIWYG tool can be a disadvantage. In order for the layout in a WYSIWYG tool to work on the various display sizes, either the end-users screen size has to be pre-specified or the content area has to be constrained to the smallest expected area. Specification of the required display size can be done by laying the material out at the content creator's preferred display size, and then forcing the end user to scroll to see all the content.

Course developers benefit from a basic understand of instructional design, web design, and the layout of their course before they begin course creation. Layout and design in a WYSIWYG tool is handled on a per-page basis making it difficult to globally change the look of a course. Creation of interactions (next page, previous page, drill down page, index, glossary, help, FAQ …) requires an experienced developer, and may have to be repeated on each page. WYSIWYG tools are not natively designed for web delivery. So, while the initial perception is that the content creation process is more visual and "intuitive", the long term maintenance and re-use of content in WYSIWYG tools is slow and cumbersome. Addition of web features like new graphic types, style sheet (CSS), and pages developed with other tools like Dreamweaver is either rather difficult or impossible.