Text area and text field

Summary:

Text area and text field can both be editable or non-editable.
Text field has fewer editing features than text area.
Look-and-feel for both is nowadays identical.
Both:
- Use Nokia's TextEditor nowadays.
- Can have default text.
- Can have dimmed help text in the text field.
On older devices, text field uses the original LWUIT in-place text editor.

LWUIT

Related design guidelines

Basics and formats

Figure: Text area and text field

Figure: Rich text formatting

Text area and text field can be used for:
- Displaying text.
- Editing text.
- Filling information into a form or setting.
Rich text editing is possible in both text area and text field.
Standard font in both should be Nokia Sans regular, 16 - 20pt. 14pt can be used as an exception, but only for displaying text, not for editing purposes.
Both text area and text field use Nokia's TextEditor. TextEditor:
- Opens full screen editor in landscape.
- Opens inline editor in portrait.
- Can have default text.
- Can have hint text; this disappears as soon as the user starts typing in the text editor.
Limitations:
- Editable text area or text field could always have a non-editable state as well.
- In case the text area or text field is used together with other UI components in one view:
  - Non-editable state should be used in this view.
  - User must activate editable state.
Formats:
- Text field is a subclass of text area.

Full touch	Touch and type	Non-touch	Descriptions
Figure: View in full touch	Figure: View in touch and type	Figure: View in non-touch	Full touch and touch and type: Embedded links require: Their own line. Extra space between the next lines. Non-touch: Do not place any UI elements inside the text field or text area (e.g., no "clear all"), since the navigation will not work satisfyingly.