HTML Elements Reference: TEXTAREA Element

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Specifies a scrollable text box. HTML 2, 3.2, 4, 4.01, 5

HTML Syntax
<textarea accesskey = key class = classname cols = n datafld = colname datasrc = #id disabled id = value name = name readonly rows = n style = css_style_rules tabindex = n title = text wrap = off | hard | soft >

Remarks

The TEXTAREA element defines a multiline text input control wherein users can enter one or more lines of text.
The number of lines and the number of characters per line, that the TEXTAREA can accommodate without scrolling, can be specified with the rows and cols attribute. The wrap attribute specifies how text wrapping is handled by the element.
Scrollbars appear in the TEXTAREA if the text exceeds the number of specified rows or columns. The CSS overflow attribute, however, can be used to control scrollbar behavior.
TEXTAREA defaults to a fixed-pitch font, though CSS font styles may be applied with the style attribute.
NOTE: Both start and end tags are required.
Attributes

The <textarea> element supports the following attributes, in addition to global attributes common to all HTML elements.

Attribute Value Description
autofocus autofocus Specifies that a text area should automatically get focus when the page loads
cols number Specifies the visible width of a text area
dirname textareaname.dir Specifies that the text direction of the textarea will be submitted
disabled disabled Specifies that a text area should be disabled
form form_id Specifies which form the text area belongs to
maxlength number Specifies the maximum number of characters allowed in the text area
name text Specifies a name for a text area
placeholder text Specifies a short hint that describes the expected value of a text area
readonly readonly Specifies that a text area should be read-only
required required Specifies that a text area is required/must be filled out
rows number Specifies the visible number of lines in a text area
wrap hard, soft Specifies how the text in a text area is to be wrapped when submitted in a form

Example

The following shows how the textarea element may be used.
<textarea cols="40" rows="5">TEXTAREA automatically provides scrollbars to accommodate varying amounts of text ... </textarea>

TEXTAREA automatically provides scrollbars to accommodate varying amounts of text. This control is useful when we need to save form space. This is by the way the control that is used on most email programs and in bulletin boards and discussion forums. There is practically no limit to how much content we can place in the scrollable textbox. But also bear in mind not to give your users a hard time by letting them scroll all the way down or to the right only to find out that there really is nothing else here but just this example nonsense.

See Also

INPUT