silverstripe-framework/docs/en/02_Developer_Guides/15_Customising_the_Admin_Interface/How_Tos/CMS_Formfield_Help_Text.md

# How to Show Help Text on CMS Form Fields

Sometimes you need to express more context for a form field
than is suitable for its `<label>` element.
The CMS provides you with an easy way to transform
form field attributes into either help text
shown alongside the field, or a tooltip which shows on demand.

The `FormField->setDescription()` method will add a `<span class="description">`
at the last position within the field, and expects unescaped HTML content.

	:::php
	TextField::create('MyText', 'My Text Label')
		->setDescription('More <strong>detailed</strong> help');

To show the help text as a tooltip instead of inline,
add a `.cms-description-tooltip` class.

	:::php
	TextField::create('MyText', 'My Text Label')
		->setDescription('More <strong>detailed</strong> help')
		->addExtraClass('cms-description-tooltip');

Tooltips are only supported
for native, focusable input elements, which excludes
more complex fields like `GridField`, `UploadField`
or `DropdownField` with the chosen.js behaviour applied.

Note: For more advanced help text we recommend using
[Custom form field templates](../form_templates);