Place holder or watermark in TextBox windows 8

Question

I want to show a placeholder text in TextBox when user hasn't typed anything and TextBox is idle.

In Andriod it can be done using android:hint="some Text"
In iPhone it can be done as textFild.placeholder = "some text";

How can I do it in windows 8 metro apps?

Thanks

Windows 8.1 now provides this functionality in the XAML framework itself as PlaceholderText on TextBox. — kgiannakakis, Feb 26 '14 at 14:01
@kgiannakakis [Sergey](http://stackoverflow.com/a/21927164/468724) has already given the answer for 8.1 — Inder Kumar Rathore, Feb 26 '14 at 17:12
I have missed that. I've high-voted it to move it up. It is a good thing you've also edited your answer to include this info. — kgiannakakis, Feb 27 '14 at 09:28

score 24 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 12:33

Edit for windows-8.1 they have introduced a new property

<TextBox x:Name="UserName" PlaceholderText="User Name"/>

Please see Sergey Aldoukhov's answer

~~For me this is the working solution that I got.~~
~~If any one has better solution please answer.~~

private void OnTestTextBoxGotFocus(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
{
    if (testTextBox.Text.Equals("Type here...", StringComparison.OrdinalIgnoreCase))
    {
        testTextBox.Text = string.Empty;
    }  
}

private void OnTestTextBoxLostFocus(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
{
    if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(testTextBox.Text))
    {
        testTextBox.Text = "Type here...";
    }
}

~~MS also do the same check the example here.~~

~~P.S. I have created a custom control for TextBox you can download it from here~~

score 8 · Answer 2 · edited Feb 27 '14 at 12:31

8

In Windows 8.1, TextBox has a PlaceholderText property:

<TextBox
    x:Name="UserName"
    PlaceholderText="User Name"
    />

edited Feb 27 '14 at 12:31

Inder Kumar Rathore

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answered Feb 21 '14 at 06:42

Sergey Aldoukhov

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Ostkontentitan · Answer 3 · 2013-05-24T08:04:50.560

6

The WinRT Xaml Toolkit has a WatermarkTextbox Control: http://winrtxamltoolkit.codeplex.com/

You can get it via NuGet as well, it comes with several other usefull Controls.

you can use it by referncing the toolkit in your Page´s property´s:

xmlns:xtk="using:WinRTXamlToolkit.Controls"

And the just access the WaterMarkTextBox like this:

<xtk:WatermarkTextBox WatermarkText="some text" />

Edit.:

Callisto offers a watermark TextBox too: https://github.com/timheuer/callisto

Its just not mentioned in the readme yet.

edited May 24 '13 at 08:04

answered May 23 '13 at 06:40

Ostkontentitan

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Note that callisto provides a WatermarkTextbox, too. It's lighter than the WinRT Xaml Tollkit (which is a little bit "heavy" for just a such control). – Nicolas Voron May 24 '13 at 08:00
Thx i will add it to my answer! – Ostkontentitan May 24 '13 at 08:01

score 1 · Answer 4 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:33

1

In case you are using WPF, you are looking for a watermark, check out the following stackoverflow answer

edited May 23 '17 at 12:33

Community

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answered Aug 29 '12 at 06:44

Dominik

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score 1 · Answer 5 · answered Aug 29 '12 at 06:47

1

What you can do is you can set a default text and clear it using tapped event of textbox or you can use the watermark text box see here

answered Aug 29 '12 at 06:47

kakun06

21
4

Place holder or watermark in TextBox windows 8

5 Answers5

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