I am trying to display "Required. Please select your country.", or more simply "Required.", as a placeholder in the Country dropdown box of the Create Account form in an effort to help reduce errors pre-validation, but to no avail.

Code:
<label class="inputLabel" for="country"><?php echo ENTRY_COUNTRY . '<span class="reqd">' . ENTRY_REQUIRED_SYMBOL . '</span>'; ?></label>
<?php echo zen_get_country_list('zone_country_id', $selected_country, 'id="country" title="' . ENTRY_COUNTRY_TEXT . '" placeholder="' . ENTRY_COUNTRY_TEXT . '" required' . ($flag_show_pulldown_states == true ? 'onchange="update_zone(this.form);"' : '')); ?>
wrt the colour highlighting above, green works, but red and orange seem to have no affect.



Now I have the desired text defined in two places in \151\includes\languages\MyTemplate\english.php

Code:
  define('ENTRY_COUNTRY_TEXT', 'Required. Please select your Country');
and
Code:
  define('PULL_DOWN_DEFAULT', 'Required. Please select your country');
where the latter puts the required text at the top of the dropdown, as per includes\functions\html_output.php, ie

Code:
/*
 * Creates a pull-down list of countries
 */
  function zen_get_country_list($name, $selected = '', $parameters = '') {
    $countriesAtTopOfList = array();
    $countries_array = array(array('id' => '', 'text' => PULL_DOWN_DEFAULT));
    $countries = zen_get_countries();

    // Set some default entries at top of list:
    if (STORE_COUNTRY != SHOW_CREATE_ACCOUNT_DEFAULT_COUNTRY) $countriesAtTopOfList[] = SHOW_CREATE_ACCOUNT_DEFAULT_COUNTRY;
    $countriesAtTopOfList[] = STORE_COUNTRY;
    // IF YOU WANT TO ADD MORE DEFAULTS TO THE TOP OF THIS LIST, SIMPLY ENTER THEIR NUMBERS HERE.
    // Duplicate more lines as needed
    // Example: Canada is 108, so use 108 as shown:
    //$countriesAtTopOfList[] = 108;

    //process array of top-of-list entries:
    foreach ($countriesAtTopOfList as $key=>$val) {
      $countries_array[] = array('id' => $val, 'text' => zen_get_country_name($val));
    }
    // now add anything not in the defaults list:
    for ($i=0, $n=sizeof($countries); $i<$n; $i++) {
      $alreadyInList = FALSE;
      foreach($countriesAtTopOfList as $key=>$val) {
        if ($countries[$i]['countries_id'] == $val)
        {
          // If you don't want to exclude entries already at the top of the list, comment out this next line:
          $alreadyInList = TRUE;
          continue;
        }
      }
      if (!$alreadyInList) $countries_array[] = array('id' => $countries[$i]['countries_id'], 'text' => $countries[$i]['countries_name']);
    }

    return zen_draw_pull_down_menu($name, $countries_array, $selected, $parameters);
  }


As a comparison, I can display "Please select or type your State below" within the State dropdown box of the Create Account form, which is defined in \151\includes\languages\MyTemplate\english.php as:

Code:
  define('TYPE_BELOW', 'Please select or type your State below ...');
However, this text is inserted by includes\functions\functions_general.php, ie

Code:
/**
 * return an array with country names and matching zones to be used in pulldown menus
 */
  function zen_prepare_country_zones_pull_down($country_id = '') {
// preset the width of the drop-down for Netscape
    $pre = '';
    if ( (!zen_browser_detect('MSIE')) && (zen_browser_detect('Mozilla/4')) ) {
      for ($i=0; $i<45; $i++) $pre .= '&nbsp;';
    }

    $zones = zen_get_country_zones($country_id);

    if (sizeof($zones) > 0) {
      $zones_select = array(array('id' => '', 'text' => PLEASE_SELECT));
      $zones = array_merge($zones_select, $zones);
    } else {
      $zones = array(array('id' => '', 'text' => TYPE_BELOW));
// create dummy options for Netscape to preset the height of the drop-down
      if ( (!zen_browser_detect('MSIE')) && (zen_browser_detect('Mozilla/4')) ) {
        for ($i=0; $i<9; $i++) {
          $zones[] = array('id' => '', 'text' => $pre);
        }
      }
    }

    return $zones;
  }
PLEASE_SELECT is also defined in \151\includes\languages\MyTemplate\english.php as
Code:
  define('PLEASE_SELECT', 'Please select ...');


Help greatly appreciated.