Can I disallow web browser autocomplete?

Question

You know how browsers autocomplete text boxes? Apparently this confuses users. They see it as a short list with only limited options.

Does anyone know how to disable autocomplete?

Answer 1

The proper way to disable autocomplete is like this:

<input type="text" name="foo" autocomplete="off"/>

or

<form autocomplete="off" ... >

MSDN: autocomplete Property

Mozilla: How to Turn Off Form Autocompletion

Applicable browser versions: Netscape 6.2 (Mozilla 0.9.4) or later. IE 5 or later. ...

This form attribute is not part of any web standards but was first introduced in Microsoft's Internet Explorer 5. Netscape introduced it in version 6.2 -- in prior versions, this attribute is ignored. The autocomplete attribute was added at the insistance of banks and card issuers -- but never followed through on to reach standards certification.

Answer 2

There is the attribute autocomplete. It's currently a proprietary attribute (introduced by Microsoft but on the way to be part of HTML 5:

<input type="text" id="year" name="year" autocomplete="off" ... />

For some background and additional information, see The autocomplete attribute and web documents using XHTML.