What's a Better Alternative to Textareas for Rendering HTML?

Alternative to Textareas for HTML Rendering

In scenarios where standard textareas fall short of rendering HTML tags, an alternative solution is necessary. Textareas inherently display content as plain text, making it difficult to incorporate desired HTML elements.

Fortunately, a solution lies in the form of a content editable div. Unlike textareas, these divs support direct editing and allow for the incorporation of various HTML tags. Implementation is straightforward:

<div contenteditable="true"></div>

This div provides a text-editable environment with the ability to modify its content. Using Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), you can further customize the appearance of the editable area. For instance:

div.editable {
  width: 300px;
  height: 200px;
  border: 1px solid #ccc;
  padding: 5px;
}

strong {
  font-weight: bold;
}

Now, the editable div is styled as desired. You can incorporate HTML tags like , , and to format text as needed.

<div contenteditable="true">
  This is the first line.<br>
  See, how the text fits here, also if<br>
  there is a <strong>linebreak</strong> at the end?
  <br>It works nicely.
  <br>
  <br><span>