- From: Jukka Korpela <jukka.korpela@tieke.fi>
- Date: Thu, 23 May 2002 12:54:07 +0300
- To: "'w3c-wai-ig@w3.org'" <w3c-wai-ig@w3.org>
Scarlett Julian wrote: > Priority 10.4 states that form text areas should have default > place-holding characters. (You mean Guideline 10.4. (It is at priority level 3.)) > This is causing us some grief Many people share your opinions and views. The "place-holding characters" might help people using some old software, but they probably cause more problems than benefits. Besides, they are illogical, and using them conflicts with genuine default values provided by authors. > If the user tabs to the text area it seems that the default text is > highlighted and then overtyped but how can I make this happen > with someone who uses a mouse (without resorting to client side > javascript). You can't. My advice is: Don't use place-holding characters. (They are sometimes claimed to give information about the kind of data that is expected, but any need for such hints is caused by lack of adequate explanations and labels before the fields.) -- Jukka Korpela TIEKE Tietoyhteiskunnan kehittämiskeskus ry Finnish Information Society Development Centre Salomonkatu 17 A, 10th floor, FIN - 00100 HELSINKI, FINLAND Phone: +358 9 4763 0397 Fax: +358 9 4763 0399 http://www.tieke.fi jukka.korpela@tieke.fi
Received on Thursday, 23 May 2002 05:53:29 UTC