# Input text box, clear on click

**URL:** <https://forum.kirupa.com/t/input-text-box-clear-on-click/176648>\
**Category:** Uncategorized\
**Created:** [January 25, 2006, 8:04pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/input-text-box-clear-on-click/176648 "2006-01-25T20:04:50Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![natronp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/87869e/32.png) [@natronp](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/natronp)\
**Post date:** [January 25, 2006, 8:04pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/input-text-box-clear-on-click/176648/1 "2006-01-25T20:04:50Z")

</div>

I’m trying to figure out how to have an input text box instance display my message (“search by last name”) and then when a user clicks on it the text clears and the user gets a left aligned insertion point.

i was hoping to do something like this:

```auto
stop();

var LO:Object = new Object();
LO.change=function(eventObject:Object){
	itext.text="";
};
itext.addEventListener("change", LO);

```

but apparently that only works on instances of the textinput component and I need a custom font in there (so i have to use an input text box…right?)

any help would be appreciated.