The TEXTAREA Element

The <TEXTAREA> Element

Another popular text control is the text area control, whichunlike the other text controls we've seen so far in this chapterenables you to handle multiple lines of text. You can see the properties, methods , and events of the <TEXTAREA> element in overview in Table 13.5, its properties in depth in Table 13.6, its methods in Table 13.7, and its events in Table 13.8. Also see Chapters 5 and 6 for the JavaScript core HTML properties, methods, and events that also apply to this element.

Table 13.5. Overview of the Properties, Methods, and Events of the <TEXTAREA> Element (See Chapters 5 and 6 for the JavaScript core HTML properties, methods, and events that also apply to this element.)

Properties	Methods	Events
cols	createTextRange	onafterupdate
form	select	onbeforeupdate
name		onchange
readOnly		onerrorupdate
rows		onselect
type
wrap

Table 13.6. The Properties of the <TEXTAREA> Element (See Chapters 5 and 6 for the JavaScript core HTML properties, methods, and events that also apply to this element.)

Property	NS2	NS3	NS4	NS6	IE3a	IE3b	IE4	IE5	IE5.5	IE6
cols				x			x	x	x	x
	Read/write
	Holds the number of columns in the text area, corresponding to the COLS property. Set to an integer.
form	x	x	x	x	x	x	x	x	x	x
	Read-only
	Contains a reference to the control's form. This is handy if you pass a control to a function and need access to other controls in the same form.
name	x	x	x	x	x	x	x	x	x	x
	Read/write
	Holds the name of the control, as used in code. May be changed in code, because it's read/write. Set to a name string.
readOnly				x			x	x	x	x
	Read/write
	Specifies whether the control is read-only. Set to true or false. This property is useful to "disable" text controls (although you also can use the disabled property). If you're just using a text control to display text, however, consider using a <DIV> or <SPAN> element with the innerHTML property instead.
rows				x			x	x	x	x
	Read/write
	Holds the number of rows in the text area, corresponding to the ROWS property. Set to an integer.
type		x	x	x		x	x	x	x	x
	Read-only
	Holds a string that indicates the type of the control. Holds "textarea" here.
wrap							x	x	x	x
	Read/write
	Specifies how to handle word wrapping at the ends of lines. Set to a string; the possible values are: "soft" (the defaulttext displays with word wrapping and is submitted without carriage returns and line feeds), "hard" (text displays with word wrapping and is submitted with returns and line feeds), and "off" (word wrapping is disabled).

Table 13.7. The Methods of the <TEXTAREA> Element (See Chapters 5 and 6 for the JavaScript core HTML properties, methods, and events that also apply to this element.)

Method	NS2	NS3	NS4	NS6	IE3a	IE3b	IE4	IE5	IE5.5	IE6
createTextRange							x	x	x	x
	Returns: TextRange object
	This method creates a TextRange object for the control.
	Syntax: createTextRange() . See Chapter 11 for more on text ranges.
select	x	x	x	x	x	x	x	x	x	x
	Returns: Nothing
	Selects the text in the control.
	Syntax: select() . You can use this method together with the focus method (see Chapter 6) to highlight text and set yourself up for a response from the user .

Table 13.8. The Events of the <TEXTAREA> Element (See Chapters 5 and 6 for the JavaScript core HTML properties, methods, and events that also apply to this element.)

Event	NS2	NS3	NS4	NS6	IE3a	IE3b	IE4	IE5	IE5.5	IE6
onafterupdate							x	x	x	x
	Occurs in a data-bound object after updating the data in the data source.
onbeforeupdate							x	x	x	x
	Occurs in a data-bound object before updating the data in the data source.
onchange	x	x	x	x	x	x	x	x	x	x
	Occurs when the user has changed the contents of a text control and then leaves the control by setting the focus somewhere else (such as by clicking another control). In other words, the user has "committed" the change by moving away from the controlthis event does not happen while the user is entering text. (For that, see onkeydown , onkeypress , and onkeyup in Chapter 6.) See "Using Text Controls" in this chapter.
onerrorupdate							x	x	x	x
	Occurs in a data-bound object when an error happened while updating data in the data source.
onselect				x	x	x	x	x	x	x
	Occurs when text in the control is selected. See "Using Text Areas" in this chapter for an example.