Textarea

Textarea

A textarea is a form element that lets you enter text into a multiline, scrollable field, and send your input to the server when you are submitting the form. Textareas differ from another form element, the text field, in that they are multiline fields and thus are meant for longer entries.

To insert a textarea into a document in CKEditor, place the cursor inside the form element and press the Textarea toolbar button. The Textarea Properties dialog window that will open lets you set the name and size of a textarea.

Textarea Properties dialog window in CKEditor

Below is an overview of all Textarea Properties dialog window elements:

• Name – the name of the textarea element (name attribute).
• Columns – the width of the textarea specified as the number of characters in the line (cols attribute). If omitted, the textarea will have a default width determined by the browser.
• Rows – the number of lines of text that will be displayed in the textarea (rows attribute). If omitted, the textarea will have a default height determined by the browser.

Once you configure the textarea and click the OK button, the textarea will be visible in CKEditor editing area as an empty rectangle.

Textarea element added to a form in CKEditor

The figure above shows a textarea added to a form. Since the textarea element does not accept a default message that would be shown in the field, it is presented as an empty rectangle. Depending on a browser, a vertical scrollbar might also be visible, and it might be possible to resize the textarea by clicking its frame and dragging with a mouse.

Resizable textarea element with a scrollbar added to a form in CKEditor shown in Internet Explorer

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