we created a customer defect workflow. One of the sections we added is a 'Root Cause' analysis tab,
that is only visible after the workitem moves to resolved state. This is a new function for our development and sustaining teams, so we want to make it clear what should be in each of the text fields..

one way, is to use some default values, which are deleted by the user and new info typed in.
   hm,.. this default data is stored in the database too, for every defect, from create time on..
   AND of course this data affects the index, and search results.. ugh..

so we have been trying to find a different way that is supportable over the longer history we expect..

the text help (description) has no support for formatting, so its hard to do a bulleted list.. (thee are multi-line fields), and you have to fly over the label to get it to display.
there is no support for real F1 context sensitive for customer created content, and the user would have to press F1 to see the help.. a little more passive than we want.

what we really want is a default value that goes away on its own as the user types, but the data isn't actually IN the field, just displayed when the field is displayed.

so this sounds like Javascript based something..maybe a new presentation style?

anybody have a solution or good ideas here?

thanks

Sam