Authoring environment

The authoring environment is where content is designed, created, chosen, discussed, and reviewed. Conventional CMSs, geared to page-based design, use a word processor-like interface (WYSIWYG: what-you-see-is-what-you-get) that is now widely considered suboptimal for large-scale content management because it is inefficient, makes content inflexible because of its single fixed layout, and is unable to accommodate diverse scenarios such as omnichannel delivery, multiple content formats, and the reuse of content in different contexts.

The now-preferred content-first authoring environment:

• Allows users to format the meaning of text to indicate the role of words (such as lists, emphasis, and quotes).
• Is directly connected to the content model, so that the creation of content is structured and can be reorganized and reused in different ways
• Does not require authors and reviewers to learn or use any special mark-up syntax (such as Markdown or XML), in order to be inclusive and empowering to all users
• Does not format visual styling and layout, since such presentation is automatically (and consistently) managed through the use of the content structure in conjunction with style sheets and template libraries