Description

A text area is a multi-line text input control. It is used where the user is expected to enter a lot of text.

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Usage & Behavior

General guidelines

Structure

The text area consists of:

• Preceding label - a meaningful label describing the information the user needs to provide.

• Input Field.

• (Optional) Guiding/hint text - a short description of the expected input text, shown within the input field.

• (Optional) A character count, where there is a restrictive limit to the amount of text which can be entered. The count shows:

  • the number of characters currently entered in the text field, and

  • the maximum number of characters allowed.

Open

States

Interaction

• On hover over the text area, the mouse cursor will change to a text cursor.

• On click:

  • where no text has been added to the text area:

    • a text cursor will appear at the beginning of the text area.

    • the hint text will disappear.

  • where text already exists in the text area:

    • a text cursor will appear in the position where the user clicks.

    • double-clicking a word inside the text area will select that word.

    • triple-clicking the text area will select all of the text.

• When the text area becomes inactive (user clicks away), if no text has been added the hint text will reappear.

• The character count will increase as text is entered. (See Validations and errors below for when the character limit is reached).

• In special cases, the height of the text area will increase automatically in response to the amount of entered text.

• A vertical scrollbar may be used where the user enters more lines of text than the text area can show.

Validations and errors

Please refer to the Field Validation page for more information.

A text area with a warning will have an orange border and a warning icon, as shown below:

A text area with an error will have a red border and an error icon, as shown below:

The orange or red border will be removed when the content is updated and becomes valid.

Character count

When the character count is reached, the count of the characters currently entered in the text area will become red and bold.

The user should not be stopped from entering more characters when the limit is reached.

Best practices

Use:

• where the user only needs to enter a large amount of text

Don’t Use:

• where the user only needs to enter a short amount of text → use a Text Field.

• Horizontal scroll should not be used within text areas.

General

• Always provide a clear and meaningful preceding Label for any input field.

• Where appropriate, help users by providing a guiding/hint text describing the expected input text.

Accessibility compliance

Unless otherwise specified, see our general compliance information in Fundamentals - Accessibility.

Focus management

Responsive design

Verint products should support all devices down to the common tablet size (960px width). For general guidelines, see Fundamentals - Responsive design.

• Where the available space is narrow:

  • the width of the text area should dynamically respond to its container, taking up 100% of the available space.

  • the label for the text area should be shown above the field, rather than to the left.

Design

Code