how not to have setfocus on textbox?

Question

i have a TextBox control on my masterpage

<asp:TextBox ID="txtSubject" runat="server" Width="280px" CssClass="formtxt"
onblur="if(this.value=='') this.value='Enter text,150 characters only';" 
onfocus="if(this.value == 'Enter text,150 characters only') this.value='';" 
Text="Enter text,150 characters only"  CausesValidation="false"></asp:TextBox>  

the problem is that, i dont want the textbox to have a setfocus due to the watermark on the textbox; if i have a setfocus on the textbox the watermark is now showing.

Answer 1

Have a look at Form.DefaultFocus- setting to empty string might help.

Answer 2

Your code works for me, but this might depend on some settings not shown in your sample (e.g. DefaultFocus attribute of the Form element) or the browser being used.

As an alternative, you could use the onkeydown event instead of onfocus:

<asp:TextBox ID="txtSubject" ...
  onblur="if(this.value=='') this.value='Enter text,150 characters only';"
  onkeydown="if(this.value == 'Enter text,150 characters only') this.value='';" ...>
</asp:TextBox>

Update: I was able to reproduce the behavior you described, when I set <form DefaultFocus="txtSubject">