# How to make the text\_field default value disappear

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/how-to-make-the-text-field-default-value-disappear/80737>\
**Category:** Rails\
**Created:** [December 30, 2006, 7:59pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/how-to-make-the-text-field-default-value-disappear/80737 "2006-12-30T19:59:11Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![jabo](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/aeb1de/32.png) [@jabo](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/jabo)\
**Post date:** [December 30, 2006, 7:59pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/how-to-make-the-text-field-default-value-disappear/80737/1 "2006-12-30T19:59:11Z")

</div>

Hello,

I have the following code :  
\<%= text\_field “company”, ‘name’, {:type =\>“text”, :value =\> “Name of  
company”, :style =\> “width:130px”} %\>

This generates a text\_field with the default value “Name of company” in  
black…

What I would like is …

Name of company would automatically disappear when a user wants to fill  
out the text\_field…

Anyone ?

Thank you very much !

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![jabo](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/aeb1de/32.png) [@jabo](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/jabo)\
**Post date:** [December 30, 2006, 11:03pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/how-to-make-the-text-field-default-value-disappear/80737/2 "2006-12-30T23:03:30Z")

</div>

Hi Ja, (Great name :))  
Rails is a server side handler, it cannot handle anything on client  
\<–\> browser \<–\> server cycle.  
In your case, you need to set a JavaScript onFocus even for the  
specific text field, and set it’s value to “”.