#HTML <textarea>

The <textarea> HTML element represents a multi-line plain-text editing control, useful when you want to allow users to enter a sizeable amount of free-form text, for example a comment on a review or feedback form.

#Attributes

• autocapitalize: Controls whether inputted text is automatically capitalized and, if so, in what manner.

• autocomplete: Controls whether entered text can be automatically completed by the browser. Possible values are:

  • off: The user must explicitly enter a value into this field for every use, or the document provides its own auto-completion method; the browser does not automatically complete the entry.
  • on: The browser can automatically complete the value based on values that the user has entered during previous uses.
  • <token-list>: An ordered set of space-separated autofill detail tokens, optionally preceded by a sectioning token, a billing or shipping grouping token, and/or a token identifying the type of recipient.

  <textarea> elements that don't specify the autocomplete attribute inherit the autocomplete on or off status set on the <textarea>'s form owner. The form owner is either the <form> element that this <textarea> element is a descendant of or the form element whose id is specified by the form attribute of the input element. For more information, see the autocomplete attribute in <form>.

• autocorrect: Controls whether automatic spelling correction and processing of text is enabled while the user is editing this textarea. Permitted values are:

  • on: Enable automatic spelling correction and text substitutions.
  • off: Disable automatic spelling correction and text substitutions.

• autofocus: This Boolean attribute lets you specify that a form control should have input focus when the page loads. Only one form-associated element in a document can have this attribute specified.

• cols: The visible width of the text control, in average character widths. If it is specified, it must be a positive integer. If it is not specified, the default value is 20.

• dirname: This attribute is used to indicate the text directionality of the element contents. For more information, see the dirname attribute.

• disabled: This Boolean attribute indicates that the user cannot interact with the control. If this attribute is not specified, the control inherits its setting from the containing element, for example <fieldset>; if there is no containing element when the disabled attribute is set, the control is enabled.

• form: The form element that the <textarea> element is associated with (its "form owner"). The value of the attribute must be the id of a form element in the same document. If this attribute is not specified, the <textarea> element must be a descendant of a form element. This attribute enables you to place <textarea> elements anywhere within a document, not just as descendants of form elements.

• maxlength: The maximum string length (measured in UTF-16 code units) that the user can enter. If this value isn't specified, the user can enter an unlimited number of characters.

• minlength: The minimum string length (measured in UTF-16 code units) required that the user should enter.

• name: The name of the control.

• placeholder: A hint to the user of what can be entered in the control. Carriage returns or line-feeds within the placeholder text must be treated as line breaks when rendering the hint.

  Note: Placeholders should only be used to show an example of the type of data that should be entered into a form; they are not a substitute for a proper <label> element tied to the input. See <input> labels for a full explanation.

• readonly: This Boolean attribute indicates that the user cannot modify the value of the control. Unlike the disabled attribute, the readonly attribute does not prevent the user from clicking or selecting in the control. The value of a read-only control is still submitted with the form.

• required: This attribute specifies that the user must fill in a value before submitting a form.

• rows: The number of visible text lines for the control. If it is specified, it must be a positive integer. If it is not specified, the default value is 2.

• spellcheck: Specifies whether the <textarea> is subject to spell-checking by the underlying browser/OS. The value can be:

  • true: Indicates that the element needs to have its spelling and grammar checked.
  • default : Indicates that the element is to act according to a default behavior, possibly based on the parent element's own spellcheck value.
  • false : Indicates that the element should not be spell-checked.

• wrap: Indicates how the control should wrap the value for form submission. Possible values are:

  • hard: The browser automatically inserts line breaks (CR+LF) so that each line is no longer than the width of the control; the cols attribute must be specified for this to take effect
  • soft: The browser ensures that all line breaks in the entered value are a CR+LF pair, but no additional line breaks are added to the value.
  • off Non-standard : Like soft but changes appearance to white-space: pre so line segments exceeding cols are not wrapped and the <textarea> becomes horizontally scrollable.

  If this attribute is not specified, soft is its default value.