Set placeholder string for NSTextView without Cocoa binding

Question

I know "Null Placeholder" for an NSTextField or an NSTextView can be set in Cocoa binding. Also, for an NSTextField, placeholder could be set in Xcode interface builder, or with aTextField.placeholderString = .... If I don't use Cocoa binding, how do I set the placeholder string for an NSTextView?

this post might help if you haven't looked there yet http://stackoverflow.com/questions/24931311/xcode-style-placeholders-in-an-nstextview — Eugene Gordin, Oct 08 '14 at 22:48
That's helpful, thanks! I thought there would be an easier way, like it is for text fields. — Ethan, Oct 08 '14 at 23:34
See also: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/29428594/set-the-placeholder-string-for-nstextview — JWWalker, May 27 '15 at 16:32
See me answer for Swift 3: http://stackoverflow.com/a/43028577/3184888 — JanApotheker, Mar 26 '17 at 12:23

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Nov 10 '17 at 13:25

The placeholderAttributedString property in NSTextView isn't exposed publicly. Thus, you can simply implement it in your own subclass and get the default placeholder behavior:

1 - Create Subclass of NSTextView

class CustomTextView: NSTextView {
            var placeholderAttributedString: NSAttributedString?
        }

2 - Use in Your Viewcontroller

let attributes : [String : Any] = [NSFontAttributeName : NSFont(name: "HelveticaNeue-Light", size: 19)!, NSForegroundColorAttributeName : NSColor.green]
    yourTextView.placeholderAttributedString =  NSAttributedString(string: "Enter your Name", attributes: attributes)

Set placeholder string for NSTextView without Cocoa binding

1 Answers1