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Text area control - Presentation tab

Updated on April 5, 2022

A text area is an area in which the user types or pastes one or multiple lines of text, without formatting the text. You can complete the Presentation tab while adding a Text area control.

FieldDescription
Edit Options Select an edit mode for this control. The edit mode of the control, specified here, takes precedence over section and harness settings.
  • Auto — the control uses the edit mode of the section or harness in which it appears. If the section is set to Read Only, then the control is Read Only. If the section is set to Auto, then the control uses the edit mode of the harness. For example, a New harness is editable, while a Review harness is read only.
  • Editable — the control is editable, regardless of the edit mode of the enclosing layout.
Read-only when Appears only when you select Read Only in the Edit Options field. Enter or select one of the following:
  • The When Name key part of a when condition rule. Click the Open icon to review or create the rule.
  • A simple expression based on the comparison of a pair of constants, properties, or both, combined by Boolean operators, such as .Color="Red". You can combine the expression with a when condition rule or another expression using the && and || operators.

As a best practice, use the Condition Builder to edit this field. Click the Open condition builder icon to open the tool. See Using the Condition Builder to configure dynamic UI actions.

Specify width

Select Auto if you want the layout to determine the width of the control area. This is the default. If you want to specify the width, select Custom and set the width in columns, pixels, or percent.

Specify height

Select Auto if you want the layout to determine the height of the control area. This is the default. If you want to specify the height, you can select Size to Content, which means setting the minimum number of pixels or rows to display, or Custom to set the height in pixels or percent.

Min/Max charactersOptional. Enter a value that determines the minimum and maximum number of characters that can be entered in the text input. You can designate either value as unlimited by leaving it blank.
TooltipIf you want to display a tooltip when the user hovers the mouse pointer over the text input, press the down arrow to select the property that you want to display as a tooltip or type a text string within quotations, for example, "Select to open an item" .
Placeholder

Select None if you do not want to display placeholder text.

Select Other if you want to display a hint or instructional text in the field. The text disappears when the user enters a value. If the user does not enter a value, the placeholder text reappears when the field loses focus.

Style

Specifies the format of the text input. You can Skin form — Components tab — Controls — Text inputs & Formatted text and create additional formats in the skin rule. To select a custom format, press the down arrow and select Other.

Advanced Options
Type

Select a format (read-only) used with this property. Your selection filters the format options.

Group/SelectionDescription
NoneThe property is not formatted. There are no options.
Date Renders DateTime and Text property types in date-only format (hours and minutes are not displayed). See Understanding the Date, Time of Day, and DateTime property types.

Specify the format in the Date Format field.

Date/Time Renders DateTime and Text property types in date and time format. See Understanding the Date, Time of Day, and DateTime property types.

Specify the format in the DateTime Format field.

NumberNumeric properties on output.
TextUnedited text, which may contain spaces, tabs, line break characters, and other control characters.
True/False Boolean values.

Specify the format in the True Label and False Label fields.

DateTime Format

or

Date Format

Text Alignment Appears if Type is Number.

Select left, right, or center alignment.

Decimal Places Appears if Type is Number.

A non-negative integer to control the number of digits presented after the decimal place. The default is Auto, which displays a maximum of three decimal places (placeholder zeroes are not added). Select to remove all digits after the decimal point and round to the nearest integer. Select All to include all digits.

Scale Appears if Type is Number.

Select a label indicating the scaling you wish to apply to the number. The scales are K for thousands, M for millions, B for billions, and T for trillions. For instance, if you select Thousands, a value of 20,000 appears as "20 K." If Percentage, the value appears as a percentage sign (.8 appears as "80%").

Negative Format Appears if the Type is Number.

Select a format (minus sign or parenthesis) for displaying negative numbers.

You can also specify a CSS class if you select one of the Style Ref options. By default, the class name is NegativeNumber.

Symbol Appears if Type is Number. When a symbol is specified an additional character(s) is prepended to the value. Currency automatically uses the localized currency symbol, constant uses a string, and reference uses a property value.

Select an option for representing the number as

  • Currency — Formats the number as a currency using the default locale.
  • Constant — A text string or character (for example, "%") ASCII character that you enter.
  • Reference — A property value.
Separators Appears if Type is Number.

Select to use a thousands' separator. Depending upon the default locale, a comma or period is used.

Obfuscated

Appears if the Read-only format Type is Text.

Select Yes if you want the characters entered by the user to appear as a string of bullets. The input characters are initially added to the clipboard as unencrypted, clear text values. The system computes the hashed value only as the page is committed to the PegaRULES database. Thereafter, the hashed value appears in both the clipboard and the database row.

Auto Prepend Appears if Type is Text and the control is not obfuscated.

Select a property or constant that you want to add either before the displayed property value. For example, when the user name appears, the system can automatically prepend the user's title.

Auto Append Appears if Type is Text and the control is not obfuscated.

Select a property or constant that you want to add after the displayed property value. For example, when the user name appears, the system can automatically append the full mail extension to the name.

Show Value As Appears if the Type is True/False.

Select to label either outcome using Text or an Image.

True Image

False Image

Appears if the Type is True/False and Show Value As Image is selected.

Select an image to label either outcome. Used with a boolean type.

True Text

False Text

Appears if the Type is True/False and Show Value As Text is selected.

Enter a text string to label either outcome. Used with a boolean type.

If the Localize? check box is selected on the section's HTML tab, a SmartPrompt Appears in the Constant field in the Parameters dialog. Select a field value rule if you plan to localize the text. If this text is to be localized, enter no more than 64 characters. A field value rule with pyCaption as the second key part and this text as the final key part is needed for each locale.

Show validation messages in read-only mode

  • Adding a Text area control

    A text area is an area in which the user types or pastes one or multiple lines of text, without formatting the text.

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