A very useful type of input is <textarea>.

<form>
<textarea name="comments">
</textarea>
</form>

You control the size of the box like so...

<form>
<textarea name="comments" rows="6" cols="50">
</textarea>
</form>

rows is the height, cols is the width.

<form>
<textarea name="comments" rows="16" cols="67">

                            \\|// 
                            (@ @)   
 +--------------------oOO----(_)----OOo-----------------------+
 |                                                            |
 |  This is to illustrate that if you type something between  |
 |  the TEXTAREA tags, it will show up in the window as the   |
 |  default text. The cool part is... it shows up EXACTLY     |
 |  the way you type it! (sort of like between PRE tags)      |
 |                                                            |
 |  * Most, but not all, browsers behave this way.            |
 +------------------------------------------------------------+
                           |__|__|  
                            || ||
                           ooO Ooo
</textarea>
</form>

Have a look at this...

<form>
<textarea name="comments" rows="3" cols="30">
Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of their country.
</textarea>
</form>

You'll notice the text in the box wraps to fit the box. This is the default behavior for most browsers and the text is usually sent unwrapped. If the user types in line breaks those will usually be sent as well.

You can change this with the wrap attribute...

<form>
<textarea name="comments" rows="3" cols="30" wrap="off">
Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of their country.
</textarea>
</form>

The user can of course type in his line breaks (hitting Enter while typing) and the data will usually be sent just as he entered it.

Form Tutor

Lessons: Intro 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13      Quick Forms Reference

HTML 4.0 Reference      Barebones HTML Guide