<placeholder> (Custom XML Element Placeholder Text)

This element specifies the placeholder text which shall be displayed in place of this custom XML element when the contents of this custom XML markup are empty (i.e. there are no runs of text within the current custom XML element). If this custom XML element does contain run content, then this text shall not be displayed.

The @val attribute stores the string of text which shall be displayed as the placeholder text. This string may be displayed in any font face/size desired by the hosting application.

example: 
<w:customXmlPr>
  <w:placeholder w:val="[Fill in your name]"/>
  <w:attr w:name="status" w:val="draft"/>
</w:customXmlPr>

The placeholder element specifies that this custom XML element shall display the text contents [Fill in your name] whenever there is no run content within the parent custom XML element. For example, if the custom XML element was specified as follows:

<w:customXml>
  <w:customXmlPr>
    <w:placeholder w:val="[Fill in your name]"/>
  </w:customXmlPr>
  <w:p/>
</w:customXml>

This custom XML element has no run content and the placeholder text would be displayed. However, if there is run content, as follows:

<w:customXml>
  <w:customXmlPr>
    <w:placeholder w:val="[Fill in your name]"/>
  </w:customXmlPr>
  <w:p>
    <w:r>
      <w:t>Name</w:t>
    </w:r>
  </w:p>
</w:customXml>

This custom XML element now contains run content, and the placeholder text shall not be displayed. ]

Parent Elements

<customXmlPr> (§2.5.1.7)

Attributes

Description

<val> (String Value)

Specifies that its contents will contain a string.

The contents of this string are interpreted based on the context of the parent XML element.

<w:pPr>
  <w:pStyle w:val="heading1" /> 
</w:pPr>

The value of the @val attribute is the ID of the associated paragraph style's styleId.

However, consider the following fragment:

<w:sdtPr>
  <w:alias w:val="SDT Title Example" />
  ...
</w:sdtPr>

In this case, the decimal number in the @val attribute is the caption of the parent structured document tag. In each case, the value is interpreted in the context of the parent element. ]

The possible values for this attribute are defined by the ST_String simple type (§2.18.89).

The following XML Schema fragment defines the contents of this element:

<complexType name="CT_String">
	<attribute name="val" type="ST_String" use="required"/>
</complexType>