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Optional and Required Fields

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From: Tim Harshbarger
Date: Oct 16, 2001 11:58AM

Hi,
What are people's thoughts on the best ways to indicate optional or required fields?
My personal thoughts are that the information about whether a field is required or optional is that the information should be included as part of the label for the field.
Also, what are people's thoughts on formatting information? I keep going back and forth between including the information as part of the label as well or including that formatting information directly within the field. Often I have seen it to the right of the field, but if someone is listening to a page they are likely to hear that information only after they have filled out the field. -- that is not exactly the best time to inform a user that he should have entered the date as mm-dd-yy as opposed to any other possible date format.
Any thoughts on these things?
Thanks!
Tim
Tim Harshbarger
Disability Support Services
State Farm Insurance Companies
Phone: (3090) 766-0154
E-mail: <EMAIL REMOVED>