How do I disable the resizable property of a textarea?

2929

votes

I want to disable the resizable property of a textarea.

Currently, I can resize a textarea by clicking on the bottom right corner of the textarea and dragging the mouse. How can I disable this?

htmlcss

@JDIsaaks - further, allowing resize in certain situations can break layout and printabilit (an important aspect of a current mission-critical project). – random_user_name

Sometimes you really do want a non-resizeable textarea. For instance, in this case, when you're (conditionally) converting a textarea into something that just looks like a label. It looks really odd to have a label with a random floating grabber way off to the side. – neminem

For the love of all that is good, please don't do this on an actual textarea or you will alienate your power users. Breaking core browser functionality should be considered a nuclear option. – superluminary

3906

votes

The following CSS rule disables resizing behavior for textarea elements:

textarea {
  resize: none;
}

To disable it for some (but not all) textareas, there are a couple of options.

You can use class attribute in your tag(<textarea class="textarea1">):

.textarea1 {
  resize: none;
}

To disable a specific textarea with the name attribute set to foo (i.e., <textarea name="foo"></textarea>):

textarea[name=foo] {
  resize: none;
}

Or, using an id attribute (i.e., <textarea id="foo"></textarea>):

#foo {
  resize: none;
}

The W3C page lists possible values for resizing restrictions: none, both, horizontal, vertical, and inherit:

textarea {
  resize: vertical; /* user can resize vertically, but width is fixed */
}

Review a decent compatibility page to see what browsers currently support this feature. As Jon Hulka has commented, the dimensions can be further restrained in CSS using max-width, max-height, min-width, and min-height.

Super important to know:

This property does nothing unless the overflow property is something other than visible, which is the default for most elements. So generally to use this, you'll have to set something like overflow: scroll;

Quote by Sara Cope, http://css-tricks.com/almanac/properties/r/resize/

226

votes

In CSS ...

textarea {
    resize: none;
}

118

votes

I found two things:

First

textarea{resize: none}

This is a CSS 3, which is not released yet, compatible with Firefox 4 (and later), Chrome, and Safari.

Another format feature is to overflow: auto to get rid of the right scrollbar, taking into account the dir attribute.

Code and different browsers

Basic HTML

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
</head>
<body>
    <textarea style="overflow:auto;resize:none" rows="13" cols="20"></textarea>
</body>
</html>

Some browsers

Internet Explorer 8

Enter image description here

Firefox 17.0.1

Enter image description here

Chrome

Enter image description here

68

votes

CSS 3 has a new property for UI elements that will allow you to do this. The property is the resize property. So you would add the following to your stylesheet to disable resizing of all textarea elements:

textarea { resize: none; }

This is a CSS 3 property; use a compatibility chart to see browser compatibility.

Personally, I would find it very annoying to have resizing disabled on textarea elements. This is one of those situations where the designer is trying to "break" the user's client. If your design can't accommodate a larger textarea, you might want to reconsider how your design works. Any user can add textarea { resize: both !important; } to their user stylesheet to override your preference.

29

votes

<textarea style="resize:none" rows="10" placeholder="Enter Text" ></textarea>

23

votes

If you need deep support, you can use an old school technique:

textarea {
    max-width: /* desired fixed width */ px;
    min-width: /* desired fixed width */ px;
    min-height: /* desired fixed height */ px;
    max-height: /* desired fixed height */ px;
}

17

votes

This can be done in HTML easily:

<textarea name="textinput" draggable="false"></textarea>

This works for me. The default value is true for the draggable attribute.

9

votes

You simply use: resize: none; in your CSS.

The resize property specifies whether or not an element is resizable by the user.

Note: The resize property applies to elements whose computed overflow value is something other than "visible".

Also resize not supported in Internet Explorer at the moment.

Here are different properties for resize:

No Resize:

textarea {
  resize: none;
}

Resize both ways (vertically & horizontally):

textarea {
  resize: both;
}

Resize vertically:

textarea {
  resize: vertical;
}

Resize horizontally:

textarea {
  resize: horizontal;
}

Also if you have width and height in your CSS or HTML, it will prevent your textarea be resized, with a broader browsers support.

8

votes

To disable the resize property, use the following CSS property:

resize: none;

You can either apply this as an inline style property like so:
```
<textarea style="resize: none;"></textarea>
```
or in between <style>...</style> element tags like so:
```
textarea {
    resize: none;
}
```

7

votes

You can simply disable the textarea property like this:

textarea {
    resize: none;
}

To disable vertical or horizontal resizing, use

resize: vertical;

or

resize: horizontal;

5

votes

CSS 3 can solve this problem. Unfortunately it's only supported on 60% of used browsers nowadays.

For Internet Explorer and iOS you can't turn off resizing, but you can limit the textarea dimension by setting its width and height.

/* One can also turn on/off specific axis. Defaults to both on. */
textarea { resize:vertical; } /* none|horizontal|vertical|both */

See Demo

4

votes

I have created a small demo to show how resize properties work. I hope it will help you and others as well.

.resizeable {
  resize: both;
}

.noResizeable {
  resize: none;
}

.resizeable_V {
  resize: vertical;
}

.resizeable_H {
  resize: horizontal;
}

<textarea class="resizeable" rows="5" cols="20" name="resizeable" title="This is Resizable.">
This is Resizable. Lorem ipsum, or lipsum as it is sometimes known, is dummy text used in laying out print, graphic or web designs. The passage is attributed to an unknown typesetter in the 15th century who is thought to have scrambled parts of Cicero's De Finibus Bonorum et Malorum for use in a type specimen book.
</textarea>

<textarea class="noResizeable" rows="5" title="This will not Resizable. " cols="20" name="resizeable">
This will not Resizable. Lorem ipsum, or lipsum as it is sometimes known, is dummy text used in laying out print, graphic or web designs. The passage is attributed to an unknown typesetter in the 15th century who is thought to have scrambled parts of Cicero's De Finibus Bonorum et Malorum for use in a type specimen book.
</textarea>

<textarea class="resizeable_V" title="This is Vertically Resizable." rows="5" cols="20" name="resizeable">
This is Vertically Resizable. Lorem ipsum, or lipsum as it is sometimes known, is dummy text used in laying out print, graphic or web designs. The passage is attributed to an unknown typesetter in the 15th century who is thought to have scrambled parts of Cicero's De Finibus Bonorum et Malorum for use in a type specimen book.
</textarea>

<textarea class="resizeable_H" title="This is Horizontally Resizable." rows="5" cols="20" name="resizeable">
This is Horizontally Resizable. Lorem ipsum, or lipsum as it is sometimes known, is dummy text used in laying out print, graphic or web designs. The passage is attributed to an unknown typesetter in the 15th century who is thought to have scrambled parts of Cicero's De Finibus Bonorum et Malorum for use in a type specimen book.
</textarea>

3

votes

With @style, you can give it a custom size and disable the resize feature (resize: none;).

@Html.TextAreaFor(model => model.YourProperty, new { @style = "width: 90%; height: 180px; resize: none;" })

3

votes

To disable resize for all textareas:

textarea {
    resize: none;
}

To disable resize for a specific textarea, add an attribute, name, or an id and set it to something. In this case, it is named noresize

HTML

<textarea name='noresize' id='noresize'> </textarea>

CSS

/* Using the attribute name */
textarea[name=noresize] {
    resize: none;
}
/* Or using the id */

#noresize {
    resize: none;
}

0

votes

You can try with jQuery also

$('textarea').css("resize", "none");

0

votes

Adding !important makes it work:

width:325px !important; height:120px !important; outline:none !important;

outline is just to avoid the blue outline on certain browsers.

0

votes

textarea {
  resize: none;
}

The code above will disable the resizable property of all <textarea/> elements in your project. If you want that that is fine, otherwise you would want to use a specific class for your textarea elements.

 .not-resizable {
    resize: none;
 }

In your HTML

<textarea class="not-resizable"></textarea>

How do I disable the resizable property of a textarea?

17 Answers

Super important to know:

Code and different browsers

HTML

CSS