Display flashing cursor in unfocused text input

Question

I need to do this without hacking. Thank.

Answer 1

You cannot do this without any hacker.

Here is a simple CSS cheat:

input {
  background-image:     url(cursor-anim.gif);
  background-position:  4px 50%;
}
input:focus {
  background-image: none;
}

But, as others have said, it might be worth asking yourself if this could confuse your users ...

Answer 2

Wrap the pipe (|) in the label (ugh) and place it absolutely above the text input!

Seriously though, don't confuse gentle users :)