[Chapter 21] Reference: Textarea.value
Author: David Flanagan
Date: Fri Aug 29 11:20:43 1997

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| Chapter 21 JavaScript Reference |

# Textarea.value Property

## Name

Textarea.value Property---user input to the Textarea object

## Availability

Navigator 2.0, Internet Explorer 3.0

## Synopsis

    textarea.value

## Description

`value` is a read/write string property of the Textarea object. The initial value of `value` is the same as the `defaultValue` property--the plain text (i.e., without any HTML tags) that appears between the `<TEXTAREA>` and `</TEXTAREA>` tags. When the user types characters into the Textarea object, the `value` property is updated to match the user's input. If you set the `value` property explicitly, the string you specify will be displayed in the Textarea object. This `value` property contains the string that is sent to the server when the form is submitted.

## Bugs

In Navigator 2.0, the Textarea object required the use of platform-specific newline characters or newline sequences. Thus, appending the "\n" character (newline character for Unix) to the `value` property of a Textarea object would not actually start a new line on Windows platforms (which use a sequence of "\r\n" to delimit lines), for example. In Navigator 3.0, this problem has been resolved--any newline character or sequence is automatically mapped to the correct platform-specific sequence.

To workaround the bug on Navigator 2.0 platforms, you'll need a variable that contains the platform-specific newline sequence. One easy way to obtain such a "newline" variable is to create your Textarea element with a default value which consists of a single blank line. Then you can copy the `value` property of this element; it will contain the newline sequence required on the current platform.

## See Also

"Textarea"

Textarea.type |  | top