[SalesForce] Help Text not appearing when using apex:outputField with a custom label

Assuming you have Enterprise or unlimited edition you can do this with a fairly simple workflow rule.

• Set the evaluation criteria to 'Created'.
• Set the Rule Criteria to a formula, and just put 'TRUE' in the formula. This way it always runs when a record is created.
• Then you create a field update that sets the text of your custom field to whatever default text you want.

You could of course also do this with a trigger, but why not use native functionality that is available.

There are some options for the help text usage.

1. Display help text entered in the custom field under "Help Text". This text appears if you use a pageBlock together with an outputField:

<apex:pageBlock>
    <apex:pageBlockSection>
        <apex:outputField value="{!Account.House__c}" />
    </apex:pageBlockSection>
</apex:pageBlock>

It will look like this then:

2. Use the apex:pageBlockSectionItem with attribute helpText filled. You can then "override" or better say use you own custom help text independent of another one from the custom field:

<apex:pageBlock>
    <apex:pageBlockSection>
        <apex:pageBlockSectionItem helpText="My custom help text...">
            <apex:outputLabel value="My Label"/>
            <apex:inputText value="{!Account.House__c}" />
        </apex:pageBlockSectionItem>
    </apex:pageBlockSection>
</apex:pageBlock>

Looks like this then:

3. Use a global variable ObjectType to access a fields help text directly:

{!$ObjectType.CustomObjectName__c.fields.CustomFieldName__c.inlineHelpText}