Multiple lines of input in <input type=“text” />

467
votes

I have this text input in a form:

<input type="text"
       cols="40" 
       rows="5" 
       style="width:200px; height:50px;" 
       name="Text1" 
       id="Text1" 
       value="" />

I am trying to get it to take multiple lines of input. The width and height make the box to be bigger, but the user can enter text all (s)he wants yet it fills one line only.

How do I make the input more like a textarea?

9
html

9 Answers

774
votes

You need to use a textarea to get multiline handling.

<textarea name="Text1" cols="40" rows="5"></textarea>
66
votes

It is possible to make a text-input multi-line by giving it the word-break: break-word; attribute. (Only tested this in Chrome)

61
votes

You can't. At the time of writing, the only HTML form element that's designed to be multi-line is <textarea>.

57
votes

Use the textarea 

<textarea name="textarea" style="width:250px;height:150px;"></textarea>

don't leave any space between the opening and closing tags Or Else This will leave some empty lines or spaces.

18
votes

Check this:

The TEXTAREA element creates a multi-line text input control

11
votes

You should use textarea to support multiple-line inputs.

<textarea rows="4" cols="50">
Here you can write some text to display in the textarea as the default text
</textarea>
11
votes

If you need Multiline Textarea with Auto Height Increase feature, You can use following simple javascript,

function auto_height(elem) {  /* javascript */
    elem.style.height = "1px";
    elem.style.height = (elem.scrollHeight)+"px";
}
.auto_height { /* CSS */
  width: 100%;
}
<textarea rows="1" class="auto_height" oninput="auto_height(this)"></textarea>
3
votes

Use <div contenteditable="true"> (supported well) with storing to <input type="hidden">.

HTML:

<div id="multilineinput" contenteditable="true"></div>
<input type="hidden" id="detailsfield" name="detailsfield">

js (using jQuery)

$("#multilineinput").on('keyup',function(e) {   
    $("#detailsfield").val($(this).text()); //store content to input[type=hidden]
});
//optional - one line but wrap it
$("#multilineinput").on('keypress',function(e) {    
    if(e.which == 13) { //on enter
        e.preventDefault(); //disallow newlines     
        // here comes your code to submit
    }
});
-1
votes

If you are using React, the library material-ui.com can help you with:

  <FormControl>
    <InputLabel htmlFor="textContract">{`textContract`}</InputLabel>
    <Input
      id="textContract"
      multiline
      rows="30"
      type="text"
      value={props.textContract}
      onChange={() => {}}
    />
  </FormControl>

https://material-ui.com/components/text-fields/#multiline