| Depr. | Version |
|---|---|
| No | HTML 2 |
| IE5.5+ | FF1+ | SA1.3+ | OP9.2+ | CH2+ |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Full | Full | Full | Full | Full |
Syntax
Description
The
cols attribute defines the width of the
textarea, the value of which reflects the number of
characters that can be entered (although how well this actually matches up
to the actual number of characters displayed width-wise is debatable, as
the font style for characters may change with the style specified for this
element in the CSS). If cols isn’t specified at all
(even though it’s a required attribute), the textarea
will render with a width of 20 characters. Applying a value of
"40" to the cols attribute
doubles the available width, as Figure 1
shows.
textareas, the first without a
cols attribute, the second with
cols set to "40"
Note that cols is a required
attribute, as is rows, so you shouldn’t
replace it with CSS styling. Instead, the CSS should
override the size defined in this attribute. Without this
attribute, your page can’t possibly validate (and besides, it’s helpful
for users who are browsing with CSS switched off).
Example
The cols
attribute for this textarea is set to
"40" characters:
<form> <label for="perfectday">Describe your perfect day:</label> <textarea id="perfectday" accesskey="d" cols="40"></textarea> <input type="submit" value="Tell us"/> </form>
Value
This attribute takes as its value a number only—it can’t take percentages or other values.
Compatibility
| Internet Explorer | Firefox | Safari | Opera | Chrome | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5.5 | 6.0 | 7.0 | 8.0 | 1.0 | 1.5 | 2.0 | 3.0 | 3.5 | 1.3 | 2.0 | 3.1 | 4.0 | 9.2 | 9.5 | 10.0 | 2.0 |
| Full | Full | Full | Full | Full | Full | Full | Full | Full | Full | Full | Full | Full | Full | Full | Full | Full |
It causes no compatibility issues, and has excellent support across all tested browsers.
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