[WEB4LIB] RE: WRAP Attribute for Forms

[William Moore]

On a usability and design standpoint I would recommend using wrap=virtual or
wrap=soft as Netscape Navigator 4.x will not automatically wrap the contents of
a textarea box. These attributes do not affect the data being sent to the form
processor as the carriage returns used for the wrapping are not sent as form
data. Any of your users that use this browser will thank you for this
consideration.

Nothing irritates me more then to fill out a form that has a large textarea box
but not have the text wrap because I am currently using Netscape, especially
when there is a simple fix for it in the HTML file.   :)

                        _________________________________
________________________|        William Moore
|_______________________
   LETS Web Developer      william_moore at umanitoba.ca         204.474.6523

                  http://www.umanitoba.ca/libraries/units/lets
      486F6D6F 73756D3A 68756D616E69 6E696C 61 6D65 616C69656E756D 7075746F


-> -----Original Message-----
-> From: web4lib at webjunction.org
-> [mailto:web4lib at webjunction.org]On Behalf Of Gimon, Charles A
-> Sent: Monday, July 10, 2000 1:50 PM
-> To: Multiple recipients of list
-> Subject: [WEB4LIB] RE: WRAP Attribute for Forms
->
->
-> Your research is telling you the correct answer: WRAP is not an attribute of
-> TEXTAREA in HTML 4. The idea is that wrapping should be handled as
-> presentation, that is, the end user's browser can wrap the text in the box
-> or not.
->
-> Accepting raw input from users with embedded "end-of-lines" might be
-> problematic in some cases, since Windows, Mac and the various flavors of
-> Unix all handle "end-of-line" in different ways.
->
-> Some browsers do let you WRAP a TEXTAREA, but since the standard I'm
-> introducing here requires all pages to validate against HTML 4 Transitional,
-> I never use it.
->
-> --Charles Gimon
->   Web Coordinator
->   Minneapolis Public Library
->
-> > -----Original Message-----
-> > From: peterson at amigos.org [mailto:peterson at amigos.org]
-> > Sent: Monday, July 10, 2000 1:25 PM
-> > To: Multiple recipients of list
-> > Subject: [WEB4LIB] WRAP Attribute for Forms
-> >
-> >
-> > There probably is an easy answer for this, but I can't seem
-> > to find it.
-> > I'm getting ready to teach the creation of forms for
-> > librarians.  I was
-> > re-checking the standard and ran into a brick wall.  I see
-> > references in
-> > books and on web sites for WRAP being used in the <TEXTAREA>
-> > tag.  However,
-> > I can't verify that it is a legitimate attribute.  I couldn't find it
-> > listed in the current HTML specification:
-> >
-> > http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/
-> >
-> > I've tried some of the more well-known HTML reference sites;
-> > some use it as
-> > if it were part of the specification and some don't mention it.  I've
-> > checked to see if it is part of either Netscape and Microsoft
-> > extensions --
-> > no luck.
-> >
-> > Can someone shed some light on this for me?  Is it part of
-> > HTML 4.01 or
-> > not?  Any help would be appreciated!
-> >
-> > Christine Peterson
-> > Library Liaison Officer
-> > Amigos Library Services
-> > 14400 Midway Road
-> > Dallas, TX  75244-3509
-> > 800/843-8482
-> > www.amigos.org
-> > peterson at amigos.org
-> >
-> >