<TEXTAREA></TEXTAREA>

Contains a text input area on a form

Element used to define a multi-line text input area inside a form.

	<html>
	<head>
	<title>A Simple Form</title>
	</head>
	<body>
	   .
	   .
	<form method="POST" enctype="text/plain" action="mailto:mike@ruskfamily.com">
	Your name please:<br>
	<input type=text name=name size=50 maxlength=50><br>
	How did you find me?:<br>
	<select name=howfound>
	  <option selected value="Best Friend">Best Friend
	  <option value="Close Friend">Close Friend
	  <option value="Friend">Friend
	  <option value="Larry King">Larry King
	  <option value="Grease Man">Grease Man
	  <option value="Told Not to Come">I was told not to visit
	</select><br>
	Comments?:<br>
==>>	<textarea name=comment wrap=virtual rows=5 cols=55>I love this site because...</textarea>
	<br>
	<input type=submit value=Submit>
	<input type=reset value=Clear>
	</form>
	   .
	   .
	</body>
	</html>

So there it is! A simple guest book entry form that ends up mailing you the entry. Unless of course the viewer is using Microsoft Internet Explorer. Too bad.

If this example looks familiar it's because I'm using for all my form elements.

HTML 3.2 Final

The textarea element has the following attributes:

name: Specifies the name that will be attached to the data that is entered in this area as it is passed back to you.
rows: Tells the browser how many rows to display on the page. The user can enter more data that fills more rows and the area will scroll.
cols: Tells the browser how many average character widths wide the space is. Remember you're using proportional fonts in most cases so it's not an absolute measure in characters. The browser may provide a scroll bar across the bottom to handle long lines or it can wrap text at word breaks.
wrap: Not in the spec but I found it somewhere. I use virtual but I really can't remember what it means. I think it has something to do with how it puts the data out when it sends it to you. I'll find out someday and get back to you on it.

Netscape

Nothing extra.

Microsoft Internet Explorer

Nothing special that I know of - yet.

Internationalization

Nothing special.

Michael T. Rusk
Comments to author: mike@ruskfamily.com

Revised: Sunday, December 30, 2007 11:06 -0500
URL: ./htmlgd/tagtexta.html