<HTML>
<HEAD>
<TITLE>Re: [whatwg] Placeholder option for text input boxes</TITLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY>
<FONT FACE="Calibri, Verdana, Helvetica, Arial"><SPAN STYLE='font-size:11pt'>On 03/10/08 18:34, "Tab Atkins Jr." <<a href="jackalmage@gmail.com">jackalmage@gmail.com</a>> wrote:<BR>
> @Jonas: The question that presents itself is what semantic @placeholder could present that isn't already covered by <label>.<BR>
<BR>
Placeholder contains example text really nicely. It’s quite distinct from the field label, aids usability and is too useful and important to be considered just a display attribute. For example:<BR>
<BR>
<form><BR>
<fieldset><BR>
<legend>Address</legend><BR>
<label for="name">Name: <BR>
<input type="text" placeholder="John Doe" id="name"><BR>
</label><BR>
<label for="address1">Address line 1:<BR>
<input type="text" placeholder="1 Infinite Loop" id="address1"><BR>
</label><BR>
<label for="address2">Address line 2:<BR>
<input type="text" placeholder="Cupertino" id="address2"><BR>
</label><BR>
</fieldset><BR>
</form><BR>
<BR>
Addresses prove to be an extremely good example because there are so many different formats around the world and people get confused. Dates also matter, eg:<BR>
<BR>
<label for=”date”>Date: <input type=”text” placeholder=”1 Jan 2008” id=”date” /></label><BR>
<BR>
While ideally the server would deal with a huge variety of date formats giving a subtle hint about a format that would work particularly well is very useful and a lot more user-friendly than (DD/MM/YY). I’m sure there are plenty of other examples of data types that would benefit from an example rather than just a lot of text describing the field.<BR>
<BR>
Regards,<BR>
<BR>
Adrian Sutton.<BR>
</SPAN></FONT><FONT SIZE="1"><FONT FACE="Verdana, Helvetica, Arial"><SPAN STYLE='font-size:7pt'>______________________<BR>
<FONT COLOR="#08007F">Adrian Sutton, CTO<BR>
</FONT><FONT COLOR="#07007E">UK: +44 1 753 27 2229 </FONT><FONT COLOR="#08007F">US: +1 (650) 292 9659 x717<BR>
</FONT><FONT COLOR="#090080">Ephox </FONT><FONT COLOR="#08007F"><</FONT><FONT COLOR="#1103FF"><a href="http://">http://</a>www.ephox.com/</FONT><FONT COLOR="#090080">><BR>
Ephox Blogs <</FONT><FONT COLOR="#1103FF"><a href="http://">http://</a>planet.ephox.com/</FONT><FONT COLOR="#090080">>, Personal Blog <</FONT><FONT COLOR="#1103FF"><a href="http://">http://</a>www.symphonious.net/</FONT><FONT COLOR="#090080">></FONT></SPAN></FONT></FONT><FONT FACE="Calibri, Verdana, Helvetica, Arial"><SPAN STYLE='font-size:11pt'><BR>
</SPAN></FONT>
</BODY>
</HTML>