How do I reset the value of a text input when the page reloads?

Question

Firefox (and probably other browsers) want to keep whatever text the user entered in the text input, even after a reload. Just including the default text (that I want the input to revert to) in the html doesn't work:

<input tyep='text' value='default text' />

And neither does trying to use JS

window.onload = function() {document.getElementById("mytextinput").value = 'default text'}

Answer 1

You can use plain old HTML :)

Set autocomplete='off' in the attribute

<input type='text' value='default text' autocomplete='off' />

This works on most modern browsers.

Answer 2

Technically, you don't have to run a function onload to clear it--you could just put the javascript right in the page. For instance:

document.getElementById("mytextinput").value = ''

or with jQuery

$("mytextinput").val('');

Note that it's always a good idea to work with a dom listener to ensure that your javascript fires after the dom has been properly built. So, in the example of jQuery, this would be as easy as

$(document).ready(function() {
   $("mytextinput").val('');
});