Placeholder in contenteditable - focus event issue

Solution 1:

Here is a CSS only solution augmenting some of the other answers:-

<div contentEditable=true data-ph="My Placeholder String"></div>
<style>
    [contentEditable=true]:empty:not(:focus)::before{
        content:attr(data-ph)
    }
</style>

EDIT: Here is my snippet on codepen -> http://codepen.io/mrmoje/pen/lkLez

EDIT2: Be advised, this method doesn't work 100% for multi-line applications due to residual <br> elements being present in the div after performing a select-all-cut or select-all-delete on all lines. Credits:- @vsync
Backspace seems to work fine (at least on webkit/blink)

Solution 2:

I've just published a plugin for this.

It uses a combination of CSS3 and JavaScript to show the placeholder without adding to the content of the div:

HTML:

<div contenteditable='true' data-placeholder='Enter some text'></div>

CSS:

div[data-placeholder]:not(:focus):not([data-div-placeholder-content]):before {
    content: attr(data-placeholder);
    float: left;
    margin-left: 5px;
    color: gray;
}

JS:

(function ($) {
    $('div[data-placeholder]').on('keydown keypress input', function() {
        if (this.textContent) {
            this.dataset.divPlaceholderContent = 'true';
        }
        else {
            delete(this.dataset.divPlaceholderContent);
        }
    });
})(jQuery);

And that's it.

Solution 3:

You may need to manually update the selection. In IE, the focus event is too late, so I would suggest using the activate event instead. Here's some code that does the job in all major browsers, including IE <= 8 (which a CSS-only alternative will not):

Live demo: http://jsfiddle.net/hHLXr/12/

Code:

$('div').on('activate', function() {
    $(this).empty();
    var range, sel;
    if ( (sel = document.selection) && document.body.createTextRange) {
        range = document.body.createTextRange();
        range.moveToElementText(this);
        range.select();
    }
});

$('div').focus(function() {
    if (this.hasChildNodes() && document.createRange && window.getSelection) {
        $(this).empty();
        var range = document.createRange();
        range.selectNodeContents(this);
        var sel = window.getSelection();
        sel.removeAllRanges();
        sel.addRange(range);
    }
});

Solution 4:

just use css pseudo-classes.

span.spanclass:empty:before {content:"placeholder";}

Solution 5:

I found that the best way to do this is to use the placeholder attribute like usual and add a few lines of CSS.

HTML

<div contenteditable placeholder="I am a placeholder"></div>

CSS

[contenteditable][placeholder]:empty:before {
    content: attr(placeholder);
    color: #bababa;
}

Note: the CSS :empty selector only works if there is literally nothing in-between the opening and closing tag. This includes new lines, tabs, empty space, etc.

Codepen