I am working on a registration form for a web application which requires you to enter your first name, last name, date of birth, address and so forth. If the user fills out all of the fields we are talking about approximately forty fields.
Of course this is a cumbersome procedure for the end user, but it is necessary. It is also important to aid the user in keeping the data up to date, changing address and such. We are currently working on ways of making this process easier for the user. One way could be to select the entered text when the user focuses the text field using the mouse. In a way mimicking the behavior of using the tab-key when stepping through an ordinary form in the browser.
I realize that this is not the conventional thing to do. And many of our users are not that used to computers, so much so that they probably does not know about Ctrl+A.
Given the situation, is it a good idea to select all contents of the input field for easier editing or will it actually cause more trouble than it solves?
Answer
Yes, you can select the contents of an input field on focus but only if you expect your users to edit the form with the intent to change all of the info within each field.
Alternatively, you can add a Select all link/button or instructions, such as "Press CTRL+A to select all" or "Triple-click to select all", that would appear only to the right of the input in focus.
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