Best Practices for Selecting editors

The purpose of this article is to give you some best practices regarding how to decide which editor to use.

When to use form editors

Form editors provide better guidance by displaying widgets which can aid the user in a task. Form editors simplify the task by encapsulating all the activities into one editor view.

Use a form editor for:

• Infrequent Tasks. In cases where a task is done infrequently and the user might need some information to remember how to complete the task.
• Focus on editing an object and it's properties Complex tasks.
• Complex task would normally require the user to configure setting in several windows.
• By concentrating all the activities in one editor you simplify the task for the user.
• Preventing Errors. When you need to prevent user errors or you need to make sure the input is submitted in a specific format. With form editors you use widgets and input validation to make sure the input is correct.
• Non Technical users

When to use visual editors

• Graphical notation is established in the market.
• When you want to give an overview of several elements and the relations between them.
• Graphical representations are good for communication and collaboration, visualization of processes and flows.
• Defining, viewing and editing a network or hierarchy of interconnected objects.
• For non technical users

When to use source editors

• Users are technical To edit complex objects.
• Edit can be faster by than with modeling which requires accessing many properties.
• To allow mass operations like duplicating a part of the text.
• Formatting text is easier than setting the layout of a model.
• Give complete control over the source.
• When you need to display a lot of details. Scanning a large document is easier than exploring a big model.
• Versioning and merging changes is faster and easier.