I came up with this quick solution using only GF filters and jQuery.

What the editor will look like

What the form will look like

The code

Add the placeholder option to the editor

/* In the functions.php file */
/* Add a custom field to the field editor (See editor screenshot) */
add_action("gform_field_standard_settings", "my_standard_settings", 10, 2);
function my_standard_settings($position, $form_id){
	// Create settings on position 25 (right after Field Label)
	if($position == 25){
		?>
		<li class="admin_label_setting field_setting" style="display: list-item; ">
			<label for="field_placeholder">Placeholder Text
				<!-- Tooltip to help users understand what this field does -->
				<a href="javascript:void(0);" class="tooltip tooltip_form_field_placeholder" tooltip="&lt;h6&gt;Placeholder&lt;/h6&gt;Enter the placeholder/default text for this field.">(?)</a>
			</label>
			<input type="text" id="field_placeholder" class="fieldwidth-3" size="35" onkeyup="SetFieldProperty('placeholder', this.value);">
		</li>
		<?php
	}
}

/* Now we execute some javascript technicalitites for the field to load correctly */
add_action("gform_editor_js", "my_gform_editor_js");
function my_gform_editor_js(){
	?>
	<script>
		//binding to the load field settings event to initialize the checkbox
		jQuery(document).bind("gform_load_field_settings", function(event, field, form){
			jQuery("#field_placeholder").val(field["placeholder"]);
		});
	</script>
	<?php
}

Use jQuery to inject the placeholder value to the fields

/* In the functions.php file */
/* We use jQuery to read the placeholder value and inject it to its field */
add_action('gform_enqueue_scripts',"my_gform_enqueue_scripts", 10, 2);
function my_gform_enqueue_scripts($form, $is_ajax=false){
	?>
	<script>
	jQuery(function(){
		<?php
		/* Go through each one of the form fields */
		foreach($form['fields'] as $i=>$field){
			/* Check if the field has an assigned placeholder */
			if(isset($field['placeholder']) && !empty($field['placeholder'])){
				/* If a placeholder text exists, inject it as a new property to the field using jQuery */
				?>
				jQuery('#input_<?php echo $form['id']?>_<?php echo $field['id']?>').attr('placeholder','<?php echo $field['placeholder']?>');
				<?php
			}
		}
		?>
	});
	</script>
	<?php
}

That’s it! take it for a spin and let me know how it goes.

Issues

Right now it only works with single lines, textareas and the other simple fields. But that’s usually the only places where you will ever need them.

Internet Explorer support update

Angela Bowma wrote a post with a solution that works in Internet Explorer or browsers that don’t support the placeholder property.

1. Keep Indentation: I want to code to look nice, but if it’s not indented correctly as I submit it, then it’s garbage
2. Support Different Languages: I’m going to be writing post about Javascript, PHP, XHTML and I need all these languages/markups to be highlighted
3. Line number/Plain code view: You should be able to switch between plain code view and line number. I couldn’t find specifically what I was looking for but this one had a different approach to solve this problem.
4. W3C Compliant: The code produced has to be W3C Compliant.

After like 1 hour of research and testing, I found SyntaxHighlighter Evolved! here is the plugin’s website: http://www.viper007bond.com/wordpress-plugins/syntaxhighlighter/.

To install it you can go to your WordPress Admin panel and look for SyntaxHighlighter Evolved and install it.

To use it:[language]…code…[/language]
Example:

1

It’s pretty straight forward, for better details on how to use it, I went to my WordPress Admin Back-end > Plugins > Installed, then I looked for SyntaxHighlighter Evolved and clicked on Settings, at the bottom of this page you’ll see the details of what parameters you can pass to change the functionality.

Do you know another code highlighter that works better than this one?