Don’t let your users wonder what to type into a field – Tell 'em

We’ve all been there – filling out a form, trying to figure out what to type into a box, whose label doesn’t tell us much. Government forms, we’re talking to you now.
Don’t let your users wonder—give them a helpful hint.

In Resco Mobile CRM app for MS Dynamics CRM, you can do so by inserting a placeholder text into a field.

Avoid ambiguity with a placeholder text

A placeholder text is a text in the field that tells people what to type into it. It can be a sample value or a short description of expected input. Either way, it’s going to avoid confusion because users won’t just wonder what to type in, they will know it with certainty.

You’ve already encountered a placeholder many times, maybe without realizing it. Like a Password “Must be at least 6 characters long” and by Role we mean “Your current job title”.

The short hint is displayed in the input field before the user enters a value. Once user taps on the field to enter data, the placeholder text disappears. The familiar light grey color makes it easy for everyone to recognize it’s a hint that should be replaced with real data.

How to insert a placeholder into a field

There are two options how to enter a placeholder text. One is purely a static one, using the Localization option, and the other can be dynamic, using Form Rules.

Localization approach

1. Go to a localization section in App Configurator (it can be either on a project’s level or an organizational level) and add a new localization string.
2. As ID, please enter the entity name, field name and empty in form entity_name.field_name.empty

Using Form Rules approach

Using Form Rules on the Edit Form, you can set a placeholder as a static text, or make it change dynamically.
In this example, we’re using an On Change rule. The placeholder text for address1_line1 is a static content, but when user enters data to the address1_line1, the placeholder text for address1_line2 and address1_line3 shows up.