Just Copy and Paste Then style it...
The Header
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"> <html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> <head> <title>Form field hints with CSS and JavaScript</title>
The CSS
<style type="text/css">
/* All form elements are within the definition list for this example */
dl {
font:normal 12px/15px Arial;
position: relative;
width: 350px;
}
dt {
clear: both;
float:left;
width: 130px;
padding: 4px 0 2px 0;
text-align: left;
}
dd {
float: left;
width: 200px;
margin: 0 0 8px 0;
padding-left: 6px;
}/* The hint to Hide and Show */
.hint {
display: none;
position: absolute;
right: -170px;
width: 200px;
margin-top: -4px;
border: 1px solid #c93;
padding: 10px 12px;
background-color: #ffc;
z-index:98;
}
/* The pointer image is hadded by using another span */
.hint .hint-pointer {
position: absolute;
z-index:99;
left: -10px;
top: 5px;
width: 10px;
height: 19px;
background: url(pointer.gif) left top no-repeat;
}
</style>
The JavaScript
<script type="text/javascript">
function addLoadEvent(func) {
var oldonload = window.onload;
if (typeof window.onload != 'function') {
window.onload = func;
} else {
window.onload = function() {
oldonload();
func();
}
}
}
function prepareInputsForHints() {
var inputs = document.getElementsByTagName("input");
for (var i=0; i<inputs.length; i++){
// test to see if the hint span exists first
if (inputs[i].parentNode.getElementsByTagName("span")[0]) {
// the span exists! on focus, show the hint
inputs[i].onfocus = function () {
this.parentNode.getElementsByTagName("span")[0].style.display = "inline";
}
// when the cursor moves away from the field, hide the hint
inputs[i].onblur = function () {
this.parentNode.getElementsByTagName("span")[0].style.display = "none";
}
}
}
// repeat the same tests as above for selects
var selects = document.getElementsByTagName("select");
for (var k=0; k<selects.length; k++){
if (selects[k].parentNode.getElementsByTagName("span")[0]) {
selects[k].onfocus = function () {
this.parentNode.getElementsByTagName("span")[0].style.display = "inline";
}
selects[k].onblur = function () {
this.parentNode.getElementsByTagName("span")[0].style.display = "none";
}
}
}
}
addLoadEvent(prepareInputsForHints);
</script>
The HTML
</head> <body> <p style="font:normal 12px/15px Arial;">Tab or click through the fields to reveal the hints.</p> <dl> <dt> <label for="firstname">First Name:</label> </dt> <dd> <input name="firstname" id="firstname" type="text" /> <span class="hint"><span class="hint-pointer"> </span>This is the name your mama called you when you were little.</span> </dd> <dt> <label for="lastname">Last Name:</label> </dt> <dd> <input name="lastname" id="lastname" type="text" /> <span class="hint"><span class="hint-pointer"> </span>This is the name your sergeant called you when you went through bootcamp.</span> </dd> <dt> <label for="email">Email:</label> </dt> <dd> <input name="email" id="email" type="text" /> <span class="hint">The thing with the @ symbol and the dot com at the end.<span class="hint-pointer"> </span></span> </dd> <dt> <label for="year">Birth Year:</label> </dt> <dd> <select id="year" name="year"> <option value="">YYYY</option> <option value="1066">1066</option> <option value="1492">1492</option> <option value="1776">1776</option> <option value="1812">1812</option> <option value="1917">1917</option> <option value="1942">1942</option> <option value="1999">1999</option> </select> <span class="hint">Pick a famous year to be born in.<span class="hint-pointer"> </span></span> </dd> <dt> <label for="username">Username:</label> </dt> <dd> <input name="username" id="username" type="text" /> <span class="hint">Between 4-12 characters.<span class="hint-pointer"> </span></span> </dd> <dt> <label for="password">Password:</label> </dt> <dd> <input name="password" id="password" type="password" /> <span class="hint">Between 5-13 characters, but not 7. Never 7.<span class="hint-pointer"> </span></span> </dd> <dt class="button"> </dt> <dd class="button"> <input type="submit" class="button" value="Submit" /> </dd> </dl> </body> </html>
Hey,
Thanks for the script, very lovely and very easy to mod.
May all your toast fall buttered side up.
Dave