How to resize contact form 7 textarea rows on WordPress

A Guide on How to resize contact form 7 textarea rows

Contact Form 7 is a widely-used plugin for creating forms in WordPress, including contact forms, subscription forms, and feedback forms. However, the default appearance of text areas in Contact Form 7 may not always fit your design needs, and you might want to customize their size by adjusting the rows and columns.

In this guide, we’ll cover how to resize the textarea fields in Contact Form 7 by controlling rows and columns, both with and without custom CSS, as well as other useful tips to style your forms precisely to your liking.

Understanding Contact Form 7’s Textarea

The textarea tag in HTML is typically used to create a large, multi-line input field in forms. By default, Contact Form 7 lets you insert a textarea using shortcodes, which provides basic configuration options for rows and columns.

A sample textarea shortcode in Contact Form 7 might look like this:

However, without additional customization, the text area will take on the default size settings in your theme. Let’s walk through how to control its size and make it fit perfectly within your form.

Step 1: Adjust Rows and Columns in the Contact Form 7 Shortcode

The quickest way to resize the textarea field is by adjusting the rows and cols attributes in the Contact Form 7 shortcode. Here’s how:

1. Open Contact Form 7 in WordPress:
   • Go to WordPress Dashboard → Contact → Contact Forms.
   • Select the form you want to edit.
2. Locate the Textarea Field:
   • In the form editor, look for the textarea shortcode, which typically looks like [textarea your-message].
3. Add Rows and Columns Attributes:
   • Add rows and cols parameters to the shortcode. For example:
   html

   [textarea your-message rows:5 cols:40]
   • Here, rows:5 makes the textarea 5 lines tall, and cols:40 makes it 40 characters wide.
4. Save and Test:
   • Save the form, then check it on your website to see how the adjusted textarea appears.

Example Code:

This example would create a textarea that is 10 lines tall and 50 characters wide. Adjust these numbers to fit your design needs.

Step 2: Resize Textarea Using Custom CSS

For finer control over the size, style, and responsiveness of the textarea, you can use CSS. This approach lets you style the textarea more precisely and ensures it scales properly on different screen sizes.

1. Open the WordPress Customizer or Stylesheet:
   • Go to WordPress Dashboard → Appearance → Customize → Additional CSS.
   • Alternatively, you can add CSS in your theme’s style.css file or your child theme.
2. Target the Textarea Using CSS:
   • Contact Form 7 textareas can be targeted with the CSS selector textarea.wpcf7-form-control.

   Here’s an example to resize the textarea:

   css

   /* Resize Contact Form 7 Textarea */ .wpcf7-form-control.wpcf7-textarea { width: 100%; /* Full width of the container */ height: 200px; /* Set desired height */ max-width: 600px; /* Optional max-width for larger screens */ min-height: 100px; /* Optional min-height */ }

   In this example:

   • width: 100% ensures the textarea adjusts to the full width of its container, which is helpful for responsive design.
   • height controls the vertical size.
   • max-width ensures the textarea doesn’t get too large on larger screens.
3. Test and Tweak:
   • Save the CSS and view your form on different devices to ensure it appears correctly.

Additional CSS Tips

If you want to further style the appearance of the textarea (such as changing its border, background color, or padding), you can do so by adding more CSS properties:

In this CSS:

• padding: 10px adds space inside the textarea.
• border and border-radius control the border and rounded corners.
• resize: none disables the user’s ability to resize the textarea.

Step 3: Make Textarea Responsive

Responsive design is crucial, especially if you expect users to fill out forms on mobile devices. Here’s how to use media queries to make the textarea size adjust based on screen width:

In this example:

• The textarea height is decreased for tablet (768px and below) and mobile (480px and below) screens, keeping the form visually appealing and user-friendly on all devices.

Step 4: Use CSS Flexbox for Better Layout Control

If your form layout requires multiple text areas or fields to align in specific ways, Flexbox can be helpful. For example, you can use Flexbox to ensure that the textarea aligns with other fields or buttons.

This CSS allows fields to stack vertically on mobile devices and align horizontally on larger screens, improving layout and usability.

Tips for Troubleshooting Textarea Styling

• Test Across Browsers: Different browsers may render form elements slightly differently, so always check your form in multiple browsers to ensure consistency.
• Inspect with Developer Tools: Use your browser’s Developer Tools to inspect the textarea field and verify if the custom CSS is applied correctly.
• Override Conflicting Styles: Some themes may have predefined styles for form elements. If your custom styles don’t apply, try using !important (e.g., width: 100% !important;) to override these defaults.

Final Thoughts

Resizing and customizing the textarea in Contact Form 7 can enhance the usability and appearance of your forms, ensuring a better user experience. Adjusting rows and columns in the shortcode is quick, but for precise control, custom CSS is highly effective. And for mobile-friendly designs, don’t forget to implement responsive CSS techniques.

By using these methods, you can ensure that your forms look polished and professional across all devices, enhancing your website’s overall design and user experience.