Address forms

Filling in an address can be time-consuming and frustrating. What is an Address line 2? You may not have a surname, so what should you enter in a Surname field? Avoid these confusions and help users fill out address forms.

Ensure your address form is easy to use

Many forms use one field for first name and one for surname. However, some people don't have a surname, or their names don't have two parts, so how should they fill in the surname field? Use a single <input> for the name field. Learn more about handling different name formats.

Also use a single <input> for the street address–not every address has a street number.

Be careful with form control descriptions. For example, users in the US say ZIP, in the UK postcode. Use <label for="zip">ZIP or postal code (optional)</label> to make sure users know what data to enter. Make the postal code field optional–not every address has a postal code.

Help users enter their address

The autocomplete attribute can help users re-enter their address:

  • autocomplete="name"
  • autocomplete="street-address"
  • autocomplete="postal-code"
  • autocomplete="country"

You can define multiple values separated by a space for autocomplete. Say you have a form with a shipping address and another form for a billing address. To tell the browser which postal code is for the billing address, you can use autocomplete="billing postal-code". For the shipping address, use shipping as the first value.

Change the label for the Enter key on on-screen keyboards with the enterkeyhint attribute. Use enterkeyhint="done" for the last form control, and enterkeyhint="next" for the other form controls.

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