Displaying "Type here to ..." until the user enters text into a TextBox is a well-known usability feature nowadays. How would one implement this feature in C#?
My idea is to override OnTextChanged, but the logic to handle the changes of text from and to "Type here" is a bit tricky...
Displaying "Type here" on initialization and removing it on first input is easy, but I want to display the message every time the entered text becomes empty.
I'm just starting to learn C# this semester so I'm not an expert, but this worked for me: (This is using windows forms)
private void Form1_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
textBox1.SelectionStart = 0; //This keeps the text
textBox1.SelectionLength = 0; //from being highlighted
textBox1.ForeColor = Color.Gray;
}
private void textBox_MouseMove(object sender, MouseEventArgs e)
{
Cursor.Current = Cursors.IBeam; //Without this the mouse pointer shows busy
}
private void textBox1_KeyDown(object sender, KeyEventArgs e)
{
if (textBox1.Text.Equals("Type here...") == true)
{
textBox1.Text = "";
textBox1.ForeColor = Color.Black;
}
}
private void textBox1_KeyUp(object sender, KeyEventArgs e)
{
if (textBox1.Text.Equals(null) == true || textBox1.Text.Equals("") == true)
{
textBox1.Text = "Type here...";
textBox1.ForeColor = Color.Gray;
}
}