Text Area

Text Area creates a text area field that can have multiple lines of text. It can be configured to display plain text or rich text.

Data binding

Set or modify the data binding for the control in the General properties tab. The Text Area control can be bound to a String variable.

Configuration properties

Set or modify configuration properties for the control, such as appearance and behavior properties, in the Configuration properties tab.

Screen size: A configuration property that has the Screen Sizes icon beside the property name can have different values for each screen size. If you do not set a value, the screen size inherits the value of the next larger screen size as its default value. If you are using the Process Designer desktop editor (deprecated), you are setting the value for the large screen size. The other screen sizes inherit this value.

Theme definitions: Theme definitions specify the colors and styles for a control and determine the appearance of the control. You can preview the look and feel of controls in the theme editor. See Themes.

The appearance configuration properties for Text Area are shown in the following table:

Table 1. Appearance configuration properties for Text Area
Appearance configuration property	Description	Data type
Width	Specifies the width of the text field in pixels, percent, or em units. For example: `50px` or `20%` or `0.4em`. The default unit is pixel, in case no other is specified.	`String`
Height	Specifies the height of the text field in `px` (pixels) or `em` units. If no unit type is specified, `px` is assumed.	`String`
Size	Specifies the text size. Applies to both label and text. Default Large Small	`String`
Label placement	Specifies the placement of the label in relation to the text. Top Left Note: Labels on the left change the specified width of the control.	`String`
Label width	The width of the label. You can specify the width in px (pixels), % (percent), or em units. For example, 50px, 20%, or 0.4em. If a unit type is not specified, px is assumed.	`String`

The behavior configuration properties for Text Area are listed in the following table:

Table 2. Behavior configuration properties for Text Area
Behavior configuration property	Description	Data type
Tab index	Specifies the tabbing sequence index of the control. The tab indices start at 1 and can be set sparsely. For example, you can use 1, 5, 10. The Tab index property controls the tabbing sequence when you move between coach areas by pressing the Tab key.	`Integer`
Placeholder text	Provides the placeholder text that is displayed when no value was entered.	`String`
Validate input	The regular expression to use for validating input.	`String`
Auto-expand on printing	Enables printing of the entire content of the text area, beyond the area that is visible on the screen.	`Boolean`

Events

Set or modify the event handlers for the control in the Events tab. You can set events to be triggered programmatically or when a user interacts with the control. For information about how to define and code events, see User-defined events.

Text Area has the following types of event handlers:

On load: Activated when the page loads. For example:
```
me.setText("Some default text on load.")
```

On change: Activated when the text is changed. For example:

if(newText != oldText){return confirm ("Are you sure you want to change the text area field?");}

On focus: Activated when the focus moves to the text field. For example:
```
me.setLabelPlacement("T")
```
where "T" (standing for Top) must be defined in "me.setLabelPlacement("L")".
On blur: Activated when the text field loses the focus. For example:
```
me.setLabelPlacement("L")
```
where "L" (standing for Left) must be defined in "me.setLabelPlacement("L")".
On input: Activated when the user enters text in the text field. For example:
```
return potential.length<=10;
```

Methods

For detailed information on the available methods for Text Area, see the Text Area JavaScript API.

Additional resources

For information about how to create a coach, see Building coaches.
For information about standard properties (General, Configuration, Positioning, Visibility, and HTML Attributes), see Coach view properties.