Add Placeholder in WordPress Editor Content Box

Question

I want to add a placeholder to the WordPress Editor content box.

When you create a new post, the title field shows "Enter Title Here" exactly same like editor. I have used a filter to add text in the editor, but the behaviour of the filter is not the same as the title field. When I click on title field, "Enter Title Here" is replaced with a blank space.

Code:

add_filter( 'default_content', 'my_editor_content' );

function my_editor_content( $content ) {
    $content .= '<b id="enter_desc_here" style="color: #BBBBBB;font-size: 1.7em;">Enter Description Here</b>';
    return $content;
}

Is it possible to use similar code to add a place holder to the Editor's Content box?

Answer 1

I handled this by creating a utility function that takes a new placeholder and the post type, then uses a filter to add a placeholder attribute to the <textarea>. This will be able similar to the Title field, which I think is what you are trying to accomplish.

/**
 * Change the default placeholder for the post editor
 * @param string    $new_placeholder    Placeholder text to add to editor field
 * @param string    $post_type          Post_type where placeholder text should be used.
 */
function change_editor_placeholder ( $new_placeholder, $post_type ){
    $change_func = function( $html ) use ( $new_placeholder, $post_type ) {
        $screen = get_current_screen();
        if ( $post_type == $screen->post_type ){
            $html = preg_replace('/<textarea/', '<textarea placeholder="' . $new_placeholder . '" ', $html);
        }
        return $html;
    };
    add_filter('the_editor', $change_func);
}