Topic:

<TEXTAREA> Form Textarea

Definition:

To let users enter more than one line of text, use the TEXTAREA element.

Attributes:

ID
An SGML identifier used as the target for hypertext links or for naming particular elements in associated style sheets. Identifiers are NAME tokens and must be unique within the scope of the current document.

LANG
This is one of the ISO standard language abbreviations, e.g. "en.uk" for the variety of English spoken in the United Kingdom. It can be used by parsers to select language specific choices for quotation marks, ligatures and hyphenation rules. The language attribute is composed from the two letter language code from ISO 639, optionally followed by a period and a two letter country code from ISO 3166.

CLASS
This a space separated list of SGML NAME tokens and is used to subclass tag names. By convention, class names are interpreted hierarchically, with the most general class on the left and the most specific on the right, where classes are separated by a period. The CLASS attribute is most commonly used to attach a different style to some element, but it is recommended that where practical class names should be picked on the basis of the element's semantics, because this permitsother uses, such as restricting search through documents by matching on element class names. The conventions for choosing class names are outside the scope of this document.

NAME
The formal name of the field which is used in the form's contents list.

ROWS
This gives the visible number of text lines shown by the field. User agents should allow text to grow beyond these limits by scrolling as needed.

COLS
The visible number of characters across the field. User agents should allow text to grow beyond these limits by scrolling as needed.

DISABLED
When present, the field should be rendered as normal, but can't be modified by the user. Where practical the rendering should provide a cue that the field is disabled e.g. by graying out the text, changing the color of the background or similar.

ERROR
This attribute specifies an error message explaining why the field's current value is incorrect. When this attribute is missing, the field can be assumed to be ok. User agents are recommended to provide a cue to indicate that the field is in error.

ALIGN
Take values TOP or MIDDLE or BOTTOM, defining whether the top or middle or bottom row of the field should be aligned with the baseline for the text line in which the TEXTAREA element appears. The default is align=top.
With ALIGN=LEFT, the field will float down and over to the current left margin, and subsequent text will wrap around the right hand side of the field. Likewise for ALIGN=RIGHT, the field aligns with the current right margin and, and text wraps around the left.

Context:

<TEXTAREA> is legal within:
<FORM>

The following markup can be used within <TEXTAREA>
none

Suggested style/usage:

Close Tag: REQUIRED

Example:

Please see the Fill In Forms tutorial for examples.