How to Create a Form: Part II

c)<TEXTAREA> </TEXTAREA>
This pair of tags allow you to create multiple-line input field. As a rule of thumb, if you just want to get one line of input from users, use <INPUT></INPUT> tags. If you want to get many lines of text, use <TEXTAREA></TEXTAREA> tags. There are some attributes that can go within the <TEXTAREA> tag:

NAME attribute is required. This specifies the name of specific text field in a form. Example: NAME="message".
ROWS attribute defines the number of rows.
COLS attributes defines the number of columns.
If you omit the ROWS and COLS attributes, a blank field with 4 rows and 40 characters will be displayed by default.

Example: Display a text area with 10 rows and 30 characters wide
<TEXTAREA NAME="feedback" COLS="30" ROWS="10">

d) <SELECT> </SELECT>
This pair of tags enables users to choose among various options such as a drop-down menu or a scroll box. Here are some useful attributes that can go within the <SELECT> tag:

NAME attribute is required for identification purpose in the form and for later processing.
SIZE attribute determines how many choices to show. If you omit the value of SIZE or set it to 1, then choices are shown as a drop-down list. If you set the value for SIZE attribute to 2 or greater, then choices are shown in a scroll box.
MULTIPLE attribute determines the number of selection that a form visitor can select. When MULTIPLE is specified in <SELECT> tag, then a scrolling window displays, regardless of the number of choices or the setting of SIZE.

e)<OPTION>
This tag often goes within the pair <SELECT> </SELECT> to present choices to user. There are two attributes that can go within the <OPTION> tag.

The VALUE attribute determines the value to be assigned to each choice, which is sent back to the script.
The SELECTED attribute sets one choice as a default choice.

Example: This will create a drop-down list of three choices
<HTML>
<HEAD><TITLE>An example of drop-down list</TITLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY>
<p>What type of connection:</p>
<FORM METHOD="post" ACTION="/cgi-bin/network.cgi">
<SELECT NAME="network">
<OPTION SELECTED VALUE ="ethernet">Ethernet
<OPTION VALUE ="token">Token Ring
<OPTION VALUE ="clientserver">Client Server
</SELECT>
</FORM>
</BODY>
</HTML>