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TomWedell
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How to create disappearing instruction text in fields

Jun 28, 2012 8:36 AM

Categories: Macintosh Tags: #text #forms #vanishing

Hello, all.  I'm a noob hoping to get a little help creating a form.

 

My idea is to have instruction text in a form field that tells the user what sort of information to include, but then have that text disappear when the user goes to fill out the form (either on click, or typing the first character, or whatever).  I'm pretty sure this can be done with javascript, but as a noob, I haven't a clue how to implement such a solution.  Any clues/help would be much appreciated.

 

Thanks in advance,

 

/TW

907 Views   5 Replies   Latest reply: MarkWalsh, Jul 11, 2012 5:18 AM
 
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  • MarkWalsh
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    1. MarkWalsh,
    Jun 28, 2012 8:53 AM   in reply to TomWedell
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    Here's what I have used in the past:

     

    var message = 'Please enter your name here:'

    if (event.value == '') {

        event.target.display = display.noPrint

        event.value = message

    } else {

        event.target.display = display.visible

    }

     

    Add this to the 'Custom Format Script' for the field you want to display, and change the message to fit your needs.

     
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  • TomWedell
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    2. TomWedell,
    Jun 28, 2012 9:49 AM   in reply to MarkWalsh
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    Mark, this is excellent!  The text disappears when clicked, allows form entry, comes back if there's nothing entered or if the field is cleared of content.

     

    Love it!

     

    Thank you so much.

     

    /TW

     
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  • MarkWalsh
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    3. MarkWalsh,
    Jun 28, 2012 1:19 PM   in reply to TomWedell
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    I also included the code which set the field's 'Display' property. This prevents the default instructions from printing.

     

    If you want those instructions to print, then you can remove those two lines.

     
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  • govrellic
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    4. govrellic,
    Jul 10, 2012 2:47 PM   in reply to MarkWalsh
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    Hi Mark,

     

    I love how this works, but how can I change the font size and color or italicize the message?

     

    Melanie

     
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  • MarkWalsh
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    5. MarkWalsh,
    Jul 11, 2012 5:18 AM   in reply to govrellic
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    Yes, but you cannot reset the font when the user needs to edit the field - the font will remain the same as it was last formatted until the user exits the field. (i.e. if the text was last formatted to be red or bold or italic, it will remain that way while the user edits the text)

     

    See this thread: http://forums.adobe.com/thread/1031780

     
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