The WYSIWYG Nightmare
Something strange has happened in recent years.
We developers build increasingly sophisticated systems, use advanced AI tools, deploy in minutes... but when it comes to managing content, we go back to 2005.
WYSIWYG editors. Dirty HTML. Text editors that promise "ease" but deliver chaos.
The reality is brutal: these editors create massive technical debt. Content gets trapped in malformed HTML, impossible to reuse, difficult to version, and a nightmare to sync across platforms.
That's what I call losing your sanity in development.
Portable Text: The Alternative You Needed
Portable Text is pure JSON. Period.
It's not HTML. It's not Markdown. It's a clear, versionable, platform-agnostic data structure that describes content in a way your code can actually understand and manipulate.
The idea is simple but powerful: instead of storing `<p>Hello <strong>world</strong></p>`, you store:
```json { "_type": "block", "style": "normal", "children": [ { "_type": "span", "text": "Hello ", "marks": [] }, { "_type": "span", "text": "world", "marks": ["strong"] } ] } ```
Looks more verbose, right? Wrong.
This structure is versionable, queryable, transformable. You can render it as HTML, Markdown, React components, whatever you need. Content is platform-agnostic.
Why Builders Use It (And You Should Too)
1. Custom Blocks
With WYSIWYG you're limited to what the editor allows. With Portable Text, you define your own blocks.
Need a code block with syntax highlighting? Create it. An interactive component? Define it in your schema. A gallery with metadata? Build it.
```json { "_type": "codeBlock", "language": "javascript", "code": "const builder = (idea) => ship(idea);", "filename": "philosophy.js" } ```
Your content grows with your product. Not the other way around.
2. Custom Marks
Marks in Portable Text are like inline styles, but without HTML limitations.
You can create marks for:
- Internal links (with route validation)
- User mentions
- Highlights with context
- References to entities in your database
```json { "_type": "span", "text": "This project", "marks": [{ "_type": "internalLink", "reference": { "_type": "reference", "_ref": "project-123" } }] } ```
Content becomes structured data. That's real power.
3. Readable Versioning and Diffs
With HTML, a small change can break the entire tree. With JSON, diffs are clear and human-readable.
Git understands Portable Text. Developers understand Portable Text. Your team can collaborate without fear of corrupting content.
4. Reuse Across Platforms
You wrote content for your web. Now you need to show it on your mobile app, in your newsletter, in your alternative CMS.
With HTML, you copy and pray. With Portable Text, you render for your platform.
One content. Infinite presentations.
Practical Implementation
The most accessible way to start is with Sanity.io, which is the creator of Portable Text and maintains it as an open standard.
But you can also implement it from scratch. The structure is simple:
```javascript // Define your schema const articleSchema = { name: 'article', fields: [ { name: 'title', type: 'string' }, { name: 'content', type: 'array', of: [ { type: 'block' }, { type: 'object', name: 'codeBlock', fields: [ { name: 'code', type: 'text' }, { name: 'language', type: 'string' } ] } ] } ] };
// Render const renderPortableText = (blocks) => { return blocks.map(block => { if (block._type === 'block') { return renderParagraph(block); } if (block._type === 'codeBlock') { return renderCode(block); } return null; }); }; ```
That's it. From there, you build your rendering logic according to your needs.
Sanity in Real Context
When I say "keep your sanity," it's not poetic.
It's literal.
I've seen projects where content was so tangled in HTML that changes took hours. Developers afraid to touch content. Editors frustrated because they couldn't do what they needed.
With Portable Text:
- Your editor works in a friendly interface (Sanity, Keystatic, whatever you use)
- Your developer receives clean, structured JSON
- Your product grows without technical debt
- Your content is an asset, not a liability
The Reality of Adoption
Many developers still use WYSIWYG because it's what they know. It's inertia.
But more and more modern builders are migrating. Why? Because when you work with AI, with dynamic systems, with multiple platforms, you need your content to be data.
Portable Text is that.
It's not perfect for everything. If your use case is "simple blog with paragraphs," Markdown is faster. But if you need flexibility, reusability, and long-term sanity, Portable Text is your answer.
Takeaway
The question isn't whether you should use Portable Text.
The question is how much longer you're going to invest in solutions that don't scale with your product.
Start small. Define a custom block. Implement a mark. Render in your frontend. You'll see the difference immediately.
Your content deserves to be data. Your sanity deserves better than WYSIWYG.
Do it.