HTML & XHTML: The Definitive Guide, 6th Edition

Multiline Text Areas

The conventional and hidden-text types for forms restrict user input to a single line of characters. The <textarea> form tag sets users free.

The <textarea> Tag

As part of a form, the <textarea> tag creates a multiline text-entry area in the user’s browser display. In it, the user may type a nearly unlimited number of lines of text. Upon submission of the form, the browser collects all the lines of text, each separated by %0D%0A (carriage return/line feed), and sends them to the server as the value of this form element, using the name specified by the required name attribute.

You may include plain text inside the <textarea> tag and its end tag (</textarea>). That default text must be plain text, with no tags or other special elements. The user may modify the contents and the browser uses that text as the default value if the user presses a reset button for the form. Hence, the text content is most often included for instructions and examples:

Tell us about yourself:
<textarea name=address cols=40 rows=4>
  Your Name Here
  1234 My Street
  Anytown, State Zipcode
</textarea>

<textarea>

Function	Creates a multiline text-input area
Attributes	accesskey, class, cols, dir, disabled, id, lang, name, notab ‼, onBlur, onChange, onClick, onDblClick, onFocus, onKeyDown, onKeyPress, onKeyUp, onMouseDown, onMouseMove, onMouseOut, onMouseOver, onMouseUp, onSelect, readonly, rows, style, tabindex, taborder ‼, title, wrap
End tag	</textarea>; never omitted
Contains	plain_text ...