Adding placeholder text to textbox

Add this class your project and build your solution. Click to Toolbox on visual studio you will see a new textbox component named PlaceholderTextBox. Delete your current textbox on form designe and replace with PlaceHolderTextBox.

PlaceHolderTextBox has a property PlaceHolderText. Set any text you want and have nice day :)

public class PlaceHolderTextBox : TextBox
{

    bool isPlaceHolder = true;
    string _placeHolderText;
    public string PlaceHolderText
    {
        get { return _placeHolderText; }
        set
        {
            _placeHolderText = value;
            setPlaceholder();
        }
    }

    public new string Text
    {
        get => isPlaceHolder ? string.Empty : base.Text;
        set => base.Text = value;
    }

    //when the control loses focus, the placeholder is shown
    private void setPlaceholder()
    {
        if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(base.Text))
        {
            base.Text = PlaceHolderText;
            this.ForeColor = Color.Gray;
            this.Font = new Font(this.Font, FontStyle.Italic);
            isPlaceHolder = true;
        }
    }

    //when the control is focused, the placeholder is removed
    private void removePlaceHolder()
    {

        if (isPlaceHolder)
        {
            base.Text = "";
            this.ForeColor = System.Drawing.SystemColors.WindowText;
            this.Font = new Font(this.Font, FontStyle.Regular);
            isPlaceHolder = false;
        }
    }
    public PlaceHolderTextBox()
    {
        GotFocus += removePlaceHolder;
        LostFocus += setPlaceholder;
    }

    private void setPlaceholder(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {
        setPlaceholder();
    }

    private void removePlaceHolder(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {
        removePlaceHolder();
    }
}

Instead of handling the focus enter and focus leave events in order to set and remove the placeholder text it is possible to use the Windows SendMessage function to send EM_SETCUEBANNER message to our textbox to do the work for us.

This can be done with two easy steps. First we need to expose the Windows SendMessage function.

private const int EM_SETCUEBANNER = 0x1501;

[DllImport("user32.dll", CharSet = CharSet.Auto)]
private static extern Int32 SendMessage(IntPtr hWnd, int msg, int wParam, [MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.LPWStr)]string lParam);

Then simply call the method with the handle of our textbox, EM_SETCUEBANNER’s value and the text we want to set.

SendMessage(textBox1.Handle, EM_SETCUEBANNER, 0, "Username");
SendMessage(textBox2.Handle, EM_SETCUEBANNER, 0, "Password");

Reference: Set placeholder text for textbox (cue text)

Wouldn't that just be something like this:

Textbox myTxtbx = new Textbox();
myTxtbx.Text = "Enter text here...";

myTxtbx.GotFocus += GotFocus.EventHandle(RemoveText);
myTxtbx.LostFocus += LostFocus.EventHandle(AddText);

public void RemoveText(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
    if (myTxtbx.Text == "Enter text here...") 
    {
     myTxtbx.Text = "";
    }
}

public void AddText(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
    if (string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(myTxtbx.Text))
        myTxtbx.Text = "Enter text here...";
}

Thats just pseudocode but the concept is there.

You can use this, it's working for me and is extremely simple solution.

    <Style x:Key="placeHolder" TargetType="{x:Type TextBox}" BasedOn="{StaticResource {x:Type TextBox}}">
        <Setter Property="Template">
            <Setter.Value>
                <ControlTemplate TargetType="{x:Type TextBox}">
                    <Grid>
                        <TextBox Text="{Binding Path=Text,
                                                RelativeSource={RelativeSource TemplatedParent}, 
                                                Mode=TwoWay,
                                                UpdateSourceTrigger=PropertyChanged}"
                                 x:Name="textSource" 
                                 Background="Transparent" 
                                 Panel.ZIndex="2" />
                        <TextBox Text="{TemplateBinding Tag}" Background="{TemplateBinding Background}" Panel.ZIndex="1">
                            <TextBox.Style>
                                <Style TargetType="{x:Type TextBox}">
                                    <Setter Property="Foreground" Value="Transparent"/>
                                    <Style.Triggers>
                                        <DataTrigger Binding="{Binding Path=Text, Source={x:Reference textSource}}" Value="">
                                            <Setter Property="Foreground" Value="LightGray"/>
                                        </DataTrigger>
                                    </Style.Triggers>
                                </Style>
                            </TextBox.Style>
                        </TextBox>
                    </Grid>
                </ControlTemplate>
            </Setter.Value>
        </Setter>
    </Style>

Usage:

<TextBox Style="{StaticResource placeHolder}" Tag="Name of customer" Width="150" Height="24"/>

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