If you're using TinyMCE as the WYSIWYG editor, you could configure it so
that particularly offensive HTML tags or attributes are stripped out, reset
or replaced: http://www.tinymce.com/wiki.php/configuration:valid_elements

If you stripped out 'style' from the list of valid attributes in elements,
but left 'class' and also provided a configured 'Styles' dropdown of various
valid CSS classes
(http://www.tinymce.com/wiki.php/Configuration:style_formats) , that may
help to reign in the chaos.  Then you'd just need to train folks on the
valid styles, and what to do if they're copy/pasted Word content isn't look
like they expected.


-Ian

-----Original Message-----
From: Code for Libraries [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Kyle
Banerjee
Sent: Friday, April 18, 2014 1:12 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [CODE4LIB] distributed responsibility for web content

> While 'letting chaos reign' might seem the best solution, we've found that
it also presents unforeseen accessibility and general readability issues,
e.g, entire pages of bolded or inappropriately colored text, not to mention
making entire websites look like, well, crap!  

This is a serious issue.

Of course there are also plenty of CMSes that make it virtually impossible
to present anything beyond what would have been eye candy in the 90's
forcing units to outsource things they need to offsite vendors aren't that
great but which can at least nominally provide a needed service. 

Kyle