disable the text in the textarea

[carrera]

i have a textarea where terms of agreement is placed. I want the text inside it to be disable if a user tries to change it. Can you help me?Tnx

[Zvona]

either
<textarea ... readonly="readonly"></textarea>
and/or :
<textarea ... disabled="true"></textarea>

I prefer readonly -attribute, which just prevents modifying. Disabled attribute makes the whole area look disabled (grey) and disabled textarea's data isn't submitted, when a form is posted.

[requestcode]

You might want to use the onFocus event to remove focus so that is also works in NS4.

onFocus="this.blur()"

This will work in both IE and NS whereas the readonly property only works with IE and I believe NS6.

[jkd]

Actually, last I heard there was a known bug in which onfocus="this.blur()" does NOT work for Gecko browsers (NS6 included). It may have been fixed for Mozilla 1.0 though, and is worth further testing if I get around to it.

Use a combination of:

<textarea readonly="readonly" onfocus="this.blur()">

For best results.

[glenngv]

but you can still right-click inside the textarea and it will not trigger onfocus event, so the user can do right-click & paste.
so you must use this combination:

<textarea readonly="readonly" onfocus="this.blur()" onchange="this.value='blah blah'">blah blah</textarea>

to ensure best results

Originally posted by jkd
Actually, last I heard there was a known bug in which onfocus="this.blur()" does NOT work for Gecko browsers (NS6 included). It may have been fixed for Mozilla 1.0 though, and is worth further testing if I get around to it.

Use a combination of:

<textarea readonly="readonly" onfocus="this.blur()">

For best results.

[whammy]

Can't you also do

onchange="this.value=this.default.value"

?

[JohnKrutsch]

Originally posted by whammy
Can't you also do

onchange="this.value=this.default.value"

?

Did you try it? It throws up errors when I try it.

[whammy]

Hmm... you're right. I hadn't tried it... I could *swear* I read about that somewhere - must have dreamed it, LOL

[whammy]

OK, I didn't dream it!

I just had the wrong syntax:

<form>
<textarea name="blah" rows=8" cols="50" onchange="this.value=this.defaultValue">asdf</textarea>
</form>

works!