<textarea>: The Textarea element
Baseline Widely available
This feature is well established and works across many devices and browser versions. It’s been available across browsers since July 2015.
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.
Try it
The above example demonstrates a number of features of <textarea>
:
- An
id
attribute to allow the<textarea>
to be associated with a<label>
element for accessibility purposes - A
name
attribute to set the name of the associated data point submitted to the server when the form is submitted. rows
andcols
attributes to allow you to specify an exact size for the<textarea>
to take. Setting these is a good idea for consistency, as browser defaults can differ.- The
<textarea>
element specifies its content differently in HTML and JavaScript contexts:- In HTML, the initial content of a
<textarea>
is specified between its opening and closing tags, not as avalue
attribute. - In JavaScript,
<textarea>
elements have avalue
property that can be used to get or set the current content, anddefaultValue
to get and set its initial value (equivalent to accessing the HTML element's text content).
- In HTML, the initial content of a
The <textarea>
element also accepts several attributes common to form <input>
s, such as autocapitalize
, autocomplete
, autofocus
, disabled
, placeholder
, readonly
, and required
.
Attributes
This element includes the global 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 theautocomplete
attribute inherit theautocomplete
on
oroff
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 whoseid
is specified by theform
attribute of the input element. For more information, see theautocomplete
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: 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 thedisabled
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 theid
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, thereadonly
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 ownspellcheck
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; thecols
attribute must be specified for this to take effectsoft
: The browser ensures that all line breaks in the entered value are aCR+LF
pair, but no additional line breaks are added to the value.off
Non-standard : Likesoft
but changes appearance towhite-space: pre
so line segments exceedingcols
are not wrapped and the<textarea>
becomes horizontally scrollable.
If this attribute is not specified,
soft
is its default value.
Styling with CSS
<textarea>
is a replaced element — it has intrinsic dimensions, like a raster image. By default, its display
value is inline-block
. Compared to other form elements it is relatively easy to style, with its box model, fonts, color scheme, etc. being easily manipulable using regular CSS.
Styling HTML forms provides some useful tips on styling <textarea>
s.
Baseline inconsistency
The HTML specification doesn't define where the baseline of a <textarea>
is, so different browsers set it to different positions. For Gecko, the <textarea>
baseline is set on the baseline of the first line of the textarea, on another browser it may be set on the bottom of the <textarea>
box. Don't use vertical-align: baseline
on it; the behavior is unpredictable.
Controlling whether a textarea is resizable
In most browsers, <textarea>
s are resizable — you'll notice the drag handle in the right-hand corner, which can be used to alter the size of the element on the page. This is controlled by the resize
CSS property — resizing is enabled by default, but you can explicitly disable it using a resize
value of none
:
textarea {
resize: none;
}
Styling valid and invalid values
Valid and invalid values of a <textarea>
element (e.g. those within, and outside the bounds set by minlength
, maxlength
, or required
) can be highlighted using the :valid
and :invalid
pseudo-classes. For example, to give your textarea a different border depending on whether it is valid or invalid:
textarea:invalid {
border: 2px dashed red;
}
textarea:valid {
border: 2px solid lime;
}
Examples
Basic example
The following example shows a textarea with a set number of rows and columns, some default content, and CSS styles that prevent users from resizing the element more than 500px wide and 130px high:
<textarea name="textarea" rows="5" cols="15">Write something here</textarea>
textarea {
max-height: 130px;
max-width: 500px;
}
Result
Example using "minlength" and "maxlength"
This example has a minimum and maximum number of characters — of 10 and 20 respectively. Try it and see.
<textarea name="textarea" rows="5" cols="30" minlength="10" maxlength="20">
Write something here…
</textarea>
textarea {
max-height: 130px;
max-width: 500px;
}
Result
Note that minlength
doesn't stop the user from removing characters so that the number entered goes past the minimum, but it does make the value entered into the <textarea>
invalid. Also note that even if you have a minlength
value set (3, for example), an empty <textarea>
is still considered valid unless you also have the required
attribute set.
Example using "placeholder"
This example has a placeholder set. Notice how it disappears when you start typing into the box.
<textarea
name="textarea"
rows="5"
cols="30"
placeholder="Comment text."></textarea>
textarea {
max-height: 130px;
max-width: 500px;
}
Result
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.
Disabled and readonly text areas
This example shows two <textarea>
s — one is readonly
and one is disabled
.
You cannot edit the contents of either element, but the readonly
element is focusable and its value is submitted in forms.
The disabled
element's value is not submitted and it's not focusable.
<textarea name="textarea" rows="5" cols="30" readonly>
I am a read-only textarea.
</textarea>
<textarea name="textarea" rows="5" cols="30" disabled>
I am a disabled textarea.
</textarea>
textarea {
display: block;
resize: horizontal;
max-width: 500px;
}
Result
Technical summary
Content categories | Flow content, phrasing content, Interactive content, listed, labelable, resettable, and submittable form-associated element. |
---|---|
Permitted content | Text |
Tag omission | None, both the starting and ending tag are mandatory. |
Permitted parents | Any element that accepts phrasing content. |
Implicit ARIA role | textbox |
Permitted ARIA roles | No role permitted |
DOM interface | HTMLTextAreaElement |
Specifications
Specification |
---|
HTML Standard # the-textarea-element |
Browser compatibility
BCD tables only load in the browser
See also
- Other form-related elements: