Text in search box

Question

My Magento's Search Box is empty but I don't know if I modified it when I launched the website. How can I add some text, like "search entire store", inside it?

Answer 1

The file may be overridden in your theme but normally shows "Search entire store here..."

/app/design/frontend/rwd/default/template/catalogsearch/form.mini.phtml

For the RWD theme the original file should be at location above. This can be copied back into your theme or you can modify your custom search form so it look like the below:

<?php
$catalogSearchHelper =  $this->helper('catalogsearch');
?>

<form id="search_mini_form" action="<?php echo $catalogSearchHelper->getResultUrl() ?>" method="get">
<div class="input-box">
    <label for="search"><?php echo $this->__('Search:') ?></label>
    <input id="search" type="search" name="<?php echo $catalogSearchHelper->getQueryParamName() ?>" value="<?php echo $catalogSearchHelper->getEscapedQueryText() ?>" class="input-text required-entry" maxlength="<?php echo $catalogSearchHelper->getMaxQueryLength();?>" placeholder="<?php echo $this->quoteEscape($this->__('Search entire store here...')) ?>" />
    <button type="submit" title="<?php echo $this->quoteEscape($this->__('Search')) ?>" class="button search-button"><span><span><?php echo $this->__('Search') ?></span></span></button>
</div>

<div id="search_autocomplete" class="search-autocomplete"></div>

</form>

The main bit needed to fix this is the placeholder set on the input element.

placeholder="<?php echo $this->quoteEscape($this->__('Search entire store here...')) ?>"