Add placeholder text in Numbers

I achieved the placeholder view I desired simply by making use of the 'wrap text in cell' option!

This was my desired look:

To achieve this I created 3 columns

In column 'B' I would type my "placeholder" text. I would recommend tapping the spacebar twice before typing to give a little bit of empty space at the beginning of the cell.

Next make sure that 'Wrap text in cell' option is turned off for all cells in column 'B'

and the Alignment is set to left

Remove the border between column 'B' and 'C'

and make column 'B' as small as you can, you'll notice the text will spill over into column 'C' making it look as though it is within a cell in column 'C'

However, clicking on the area where the "placeholder" text is will provide you with a cell in column 'C' and will disable the text from column 'B' from appearing

What is placeholder text? If you want text in a cell... select the cell then type

OK. In the cell where you want the temperature type "Temperature". There is no concept of a default value when the cell is empty so the only other thing I can suggest is to make a entry table like this:

If I understand what you are looking to do:

To become like this when data is entered:

Make the cell transparent with a text field behind it. Set Conditional Highlighting to fill the cell with a color (matching your bacground color: i.e: White) when the cell is not empty.

Problems with this approach:

If you move the table or resize the cells, you will have to move the text also.

Also, while the cell is seclected, the text behind it is visible until after the user exits the cell.

Hope this is useful or gets you started with some other ideas!

Or you could try this:

Paste the placeholder text into the cell(s) as a background image (I grabbed a screenshot of text from MacLOv3r's post, and dragged that into A1):

Then I added a Conditional Highlighting rule that applies a Custom Style with white background (scroll to the bottom to get the Custom Style choice) when the cell is not blank:

Now, when I enter a temperature, my entry shows up and the placeholder text disappears.

SG

The repliers to your question don't seem to understand that there is an actual feature called Placeholder Text (Format>Advanced>Define As Text Placeholder)

I'm having the same problem as you in that it is not always selectable. I watched a Lynda.com video saying that the text not the cell should be selected but it's still grayed out.

This help entry implies that placeholder text applies in a template:

Hi whalt,

I think it only works in Text Boxes. I can't get it to work in a table cell.

Select the text

Then as you said, Format>Advanced>Define As Text Placeholder

Then type into that Text Box

Regards,

Ian.

"I achieved the placeholder view I desired simply by making use of the 'wrap text in cell' option!"

Clever! 😁

Hi Joshua,

An excellent solution 🙂.

Please keep posting in Numbers for Mac with your ideas. We need people like you who can think outside of the square!

Regards,

Ian.