In Safari (3.1.2) on Mac (10.5.4), in the search field the word
"Google" appears, because -- since the field isn't being used to
display anything the user has typed -- it might might as well
display something useful. (In this case, it gives the name of the
engine that will be used.)
Is there an official name for this GUI feature? As soon as the
component gets the focus, the extra text goes away.
I'm basically looking for design opinions about this feature,
possibly including:
1. A name (what is it officially called)
2. Guidelines for how/when to use it
3. Opinions from programmers about it
I'm not sure if this GUI feature actually has an official name but "in-
place hint" seems as good as any.
I've only ever seen it used when an additional hint is needed about
what a field is, or what it does, or what form it takes. The "new
account" sheet in Mail.app also uses this for the email address line,
and shows "email@hidden" to give a soft clue to the user what a
valid email address is.
I wouldn't want to use it as a replacement for labels (since after you
fill out the field, it is impossible to distinguish the fields from
each other).
This looks really interesting, and I think other developers will find
this useful. I'd even be interested in adding it as a default feature
to Aqua text fields, if you set a "JTextField.inPlaceHint" client
property with the string you want to appear inside. If anyone would
like to file it as a feature request at http://bugreporter.apple.com,
we'll let you know if we put it into a developer preview.
Naturally, I'd love to know if other developers have better ideas for
the name of this UI feature.
Great work,
Mike Swingler
Java Runtime Engineer
Apple Inc.
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