Question

I want to show some help text(much like in a webpage when a field is focused a non-modal popup is shown about what to enter in the field).

I have used android:hint attribute of EditText but that clips the text if it is long. Is there any built in or quick way of doing this?

Answer 1

Add a TextView below your EditText that contains the hint. By default set it to be invisible.

<EditText
    android:layout_width="fill_parent"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
/>
<TextView
    android:layout_width="fill_parent"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:text="your hint message..."
/>

Now add a onFocusChangeListener to make the TextView visible / invisible:

editText.setOnFocusChangeListener(new OnFocusChangeListener() {
    @Override
    public void onFocusChange(View v, boolean hasFocus) {
        if(hasFocus){
            tvHint.setVisibility(View.VISIBLE);
        }else{
            tvHint.setVisibility(View.INVISIBLE);
        }
    }
});