<textarea>: multi-line text

The two attributes worth knowing

<textarea name="bio" rows="4" cols="40" placeholder="Tell us about yourself" maxlength="500"></textarea>

• rows — visible lines (height hint). Browser still allows scrolling beyond.
• cols — visible columns (width hint). Most modern designs override with CSS width: 100% instead.
• maxlength — hard cap on characters, same as <input>.
• placeholder — gray hint shown when empty.

NOT self-closing

<textarea /> doesn't work the way <input /> does. <textarea> must have an opening and closing tag — and the initial value goes between them:

<textarea name="message">Default text here</textarea>

White space matters — leading/trailing newlines inside the tag are included in the value.

Resize via CSS, not HTML

textarea { resize: vertical; }   /* allow vertical drag only */
textarea { resize: none; }       /* disable drag handle */

resize: both is the browser default. Disable horizontal resize on narrow layouts to prevent users from breaking your design.