Simulation of a placeholder

Question

I have a Wordpress plugin which I don\'t want to touch, so I\'m hoping my goal can be achieved with CSS only. I have fiddled (no pun intended) with the CSS in Chrome Develop

Answer 1

With a small markup change and a script you can do this

The script simply append the user value to its value attribute, so one can use CSS to style it

p label {
  position: relative;
}
p label input {
  margin-top: 10px;
}
p label input[required] + span::after {
  content:  ' *';
  color: red;
}
p label span {
  position: absolute;
  top: 2px;
  left: 5px;
  pointer-events: none;
  transition: top .5s;
}
p label input:not([value=""]) + span,
p label input:focus + span {
  top: -20px;
}

<p>
  <label>
      <input oninput="this.setAttribute('value', this.value)" type="text" name="your-name" value="" size="40" required>
      <span>Name</span>
  </label>
</p>

---

Since changing a HTML5 input's placeholder with CSS is a hot topic, here is a few more alternatives, with a simpler, more reusable markup structure

.placeholder {
  position: relative; padding-top: 15px;
}
.placeholder label {
  position: absolute; top: 17px; left: 5px;
  pointer-events: none; transition: top .5s;
}
.placeholder input[required] + label::after {
  content:  ' *'; color: red;
}
.placeholder input:not([value=""]) + label,
.placeholder input:focus + label {
  top: -5px;
}

<div class="placeholder">
  <input oninput="this.setAttribute('value', this.value)" type="text" name="name" value="" required>
  <label>Name</label>
</div>

---

Since the script is very small, I applied it inline, though one can of course add the same behavior with an external event handler, like this, and target more than one input.

window.addEventListener('load', function() {
  var placeholders = document.querySelectorAll('.placeholder input');
  for (var i = 0; i < placeholders.length; i++) {
    placeholders[i].addEventListener('input', function() {
      this.setAttribute('value', this.value);
    })
  }
})

.placeholder {
  position: relative; padding-top: 15px;
}
.placeholder + .placeholder {
  margin-top: 10px;
}
.placeholder label {
  position: absolute; top: 17px; left: 5px;
  pointer-events: none; transition: top .5s;
}
.placeholder input[required] + label::after {
  content:  ' *'; color: red;
}
.placeholder input:not([value=""]) + label,
.placeholder input:focus + label {
  top: -5px;
}

<div class="placeholder">
  <input type="text" name="name" value="" required>
  <label>Name</label>
</div>
<div class="placeholder">
  <input type="text" name="email" value="" required>
  <label>Email</label>
</div>
<div class="placeholder">
  <input type="text" name="address" value="">
  <label>Address</label>
</div>

Answer 2

You can use the placeholder attribute in the input tag:

<p>
  <label>Name<br>
    <span>
      <input type="text" name="your-name" value="" placeholder="Name" size="40">
    </span>
  </label>
</p>