### Author:  [@hbowie](https://discourse.notenik.app/u/hbowie)
#### Post date: [September 23, 2026, 1:15am UTC](https://discourse.notenik.app/t/field-caption-display-information-or-instructions-for-a-field-on-the-data-entry-form/903/4 "2026-09-23T01:15:02Z")
Here’s what I’m currently thinking in terms of an implementation.
The “caption” would be specified in the template file by simply entering an exclamation point, followed by the text of the caption, just before the closing right angle bracket that would normally conclude the definition of a field.
For example:
```auto
Date:
```
But then I’m thinking that the “caption” would be made available as a [Tooltip](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tooltip) on the edit field, such that it would only be displayed when the user hovers over the field.
The disadvantage of tooltips is that they only show up when the user hovers over a field.
The advantages of tooltips are:
1. They don’t take up any space on the editing tab;
2. They will appear the same way for any field type, no matter how the editing view appears;
3. They avoid the complication of figuring out where to put the text (above, below, or within);
4. They can be easily and consistently implemented for all field types.
How does this sound?
---
### Author:  [@Malcolm](https://discourse.notenik.app/u/Malcolm)
#### Post date: [September 23, 2026, 4:18am UTC](https://discourse.notenik.app/t/field-caption-display-information-or-instructions-for-a-field-on-the-data-entry-form/903/5 "2026-09-23T04:18:35Z")
> [@hbowie](#):
>
> The disadvantage of tooltips is that they only show up when the user hovers over a field.
I’m not a fan of tooltips.
I can see that a frequently used collection with captions would mean that we read the captions many more times than we want to and they take up display space.
How about an icon/button signalling that the collection contains captions and use that to toggle on/off the display of the captions.
💬
---
### Author:  [@hbowie](https://discourse.notenik.app/u/hbowie)
#### Post date: [September 23, 2026, 2:10pm UTC](https://discourse.notenik.app/t/field-caption-display-information-or-instructions-for-a-field-on-the-data-entry-form/903/6 "2026-09-23T14:10:21Z")
Can you say more about what you have against Tooltips? From my point of view, the advantages seem pretty compelling. Also, they’re a pretty universal convention. All of the other options we’re discussing seem very… fiddly.
---
### Author:  [@hbowie](https://discourse.notenik.app/u/hbowie)
#### Post date: [September 23, 2026, 2:13pm UTC](https://discourse.notenik.app/t/field-caption-display-information-or-instructions-for-a-field-on-the-data-entry-form/903/7 "2026-09-23T14:13:25Z")
@ThePrinter: Yes, putting the helper text inside the field, before the user starts typing, seems like an attractive option. But it’s only implemented in macOS AppKit for basic string fields — not for longer text fields, and not for other sorts of input fields (drop-downs, etc.) So at best it would be a partial solution which, again, makes the total implementation very fiddly.
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### Author:  [@ThePrinter](https://discourse.notenik.app/u/ThePrinter)
#### Post date: [September 23, 2026, 7:33pm UTC](https://discourse.notenik.app/t/field-caption-display-information-or-instructions-for-a-field-on-the-data-entry-form/903/8 "2026-09-23T19:33:56Z")
That makes sense. I was under the impression that Notenik uses SwiftUI (and I had no idea that Apple had three different GUI toolkits). I also took for granted the variety of input fields that Notenik provides.
Tooltips make sense. At best they can be a fallback indication of a field’s caption. The collection template can be the primary reference.
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### Author:  [@Malcolm](https://discourse.notenik.app/u/Malcolm)
#### Post date: [September 23, 2026, 9:27pm UTC](https://discourse.notenik.app/t/field-caption-display-information-or-instructions-for-a-field-on-the-data-entry-form/903/9 "2026-09-23T21:27:00Z")
Basically it boils down to hidden UI, the need for skilled users, and the use case.
My feature request arose from the idea of displaying instructions. The use case for instructions and hints are different. Hints provided on a frequently used form are helpful initially, subsequently they are redundant. Instructions usually provide information and caveats needed for the user to complete the form completely and correctly.
Instructions are best seen at all times.
Tooltips are not typically used for instructions.
Instructions tend to be longer than tooltips.
Which fields have a tooltip and which will leave you hovering pointlessly hoping for advice? So there are two hurdles: you have to _know_ that hovering is a “maybe” option and you have to hover. Admittedly in Notenik the creator is the consumer so the friction of this is much reduced.
How long do you hover for? Developer determined lag time + per use case as the machine queues and performs the task.
When do you want that toolip to popup in the middle of your workflow? (Clippy!)
Can you turn tooltips off? Maybe
Can you hover over two fields at once to compare 2 or more tooltips? No.
Tooltips are often rendered in smaller font sizes, so legibility is an issue.
A good discussion document is provided at **[U.S. Web Design System (USWDS) - Tooltips](https://designsystem.digital.gov/components/tooltip/%22)**
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### Author:  [@hbowie](https://discourse.notenik.app/u/hbowie)
#### Post date: [September 23, 2026, 10:04pm UTC](https://discourse.notenik.app/t/field-caption-display-information-or-instructions-for-a-field-on-the-data-entry-form/903/10 "2026-09-23T22:04:16Z")
@Malcolm: Thanks for the additional info. That really helps me understand what you are looking for.
What about flagging fields with available instructions with a little button with an `i` on it, and then showing the instructions in a pop-up window, but only after the user presses on the button? The user could then position and size the window any way they wanted to, and then dismiss it when no longer needed.
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### Author:  [@Malcolm](https://discourse.notenik.app/u/Malcolm)
#### Post date: [September 24, 2026, 3:07am UTC](https://discourse.notenik.app/t/field-caption-display-information-or-instructions-for-a-field-on-the-data-entry-form/903/11 "2026-09-24T03:07:02Z")
That would be great.
At the outset I assumed that the toggle on/off would be applied to one or all captions via CSS styles. That guided my thinking.
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### Author:  [@hbowie](https://discourse.notenik.app/u/hbowie)
#### Post date: [September 25, 2026, 12:50am UTC](https://discourse.notenik.app/t/field-caption-display-information-or-instructions-for-a-field-on-the-data-entry-form/903/12 "2026-09-25T00:50:56Z")
Let me see what I can do. It may take a bit, since I’ve got some travel plans coming up.
Also, FYI, the Notenik Display tab is built using HTML and CSS, but the other tabs (including the Edit tab) are built with macOS AppKit.
Apple is really focused on SwiftUI right now, so that’s all you hear about, but SwiftUI was very new when I started work on the native version of Notenik, and so I stuck to AppKit, which had been around for a while and was pretty stable.
The big advantages of SwiftUI would be if I was developing Notenik for the other Apple platforms, but the Notenik storage architecture does not really lend itself to anything other than the Mac, and so SwiftUI was not really attractive to me.
Also, I’m not sure there would be any way in SwiftUI to dynamically format the Edit tab, which is obviously a key feature of Notenik.
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### Author:  [@ThePrinter](https://discourse.notenik.app/u/ThePrinter)
#### Post date: [September 26, 2026, 4:14pm UTC](https://discourse.notenik.app/t/field-caption-display-information-or-instructions-for-a-field-on-the-data-entry-form/903/13 "2026-09-26T16:14:13Z")
Thanks for the explanation. That makes a lot of sense. My impression is that AppKit lends itself better to developing for desktop environments. Apple’s current interest in making everything cross-platform (at least within their own ecosystem) is pretty obvious. Poking around elsewhere it appears that there’s still much to be desired out of SwiftUI among developers.
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### Author:  [@hbowie](https://discourse.notenik.app/u/hbowie)
#### Post date: [October 3, 2026, 7:31pm UTC](https://discourse.notenik.app/t/field-caption-display-information-or-instructions-for-a-field-on-the-data-entry-form/903/14 "2026-10-03T19:31:00Z")
Try the [latest beta](https://discourse.notenik.app/t/notenik-19-7-2-available-for-beta-testing-on-october-3rd-2026/906) and let me know what you think!