# Difference between textarea and writer

**URL:** <https://forum.getkirby.com/t/difference-between-textarea-and-writer/30708>\
**Category:** Questions\
**Created:** [February 6, 2024, 10:42pm UTC](https://forum.getkirby.com/t/difference-between-textarea-and-writer/30708 "2024-02-06T22:42:25Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![hvsrmusic](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex017/user_avatar/forum.getkirby.com/hvsrmusic/32/2722_2.png) [@hvsrmusic](https://forum.getkirby.com/u/hvsrmusic)\
**Post date:** [February 6, 2024, 10:42pm UTC](https://forum.getkirby.com/t/difference-between-textarea-and-writer/30708/1 "2024-02-06T22:42:25Z")

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I know, I know… pretty silly question. BUT I couldn’t find a good answer. So: why should I transform textarea fields into writer fields? Is there any reason to do so?

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**Author:** ![sgkore](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/91b2a8/32.png) [@sgkore](https://forum.getkirby.com/u/sgkore)\
**Post date:** [February 12, 2024, 8:46pm UTC](https://forum.getkirby.com/t/difference-between-textarea-and-writer/30708/2 "2024-02-12T20:46:11Z")

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I just came here to find an anwer to the same question.  
Anyone?

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**Author:** ![ahmetbora](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex017/user_avatar/forum.getkirby.com/ahmetbora/32/11671_2.png) [@ahmetbora](https://forum.getkirby.com/u/ahmetbora)\
**Post date:** [February 12, 2024, 8:51pm UTC](https://forum.getkirby.com/t/difference-between-textarea-and-writer/30708/3 "2024-02-12T20:51:31Z")

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In short textarea is markdown based and writer field is WYSIWYG editor.

For ex: if you used bold text for both fields, you need to parse for textarea (`$page->textarea()->kt()`) but no need to parse for writer field.

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**Author:** ![sgkore](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/91b2a8/32.png) [@sgkore](https://forum.getkirby.com/u/sgkore)\
**Post date:** [February 12, 2024, 8:53pm UTC](https://forum.getkirby.com/t/difference-between-textarea-and-writer/30708/4 "2024-02-12T20:53:26Z")

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ah… that’s great. Cheers  
I’ll check what’s suit the best then. I like Markdown pretty much.

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**Author:** ![texnixe](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex017/user_avatar/forum.getkirby.com/texnixe/32/5754_2.png) [@texnixe](https://forum.getkirby.com/u/texnixe)\
**Post date:** [February 12, 2024, 8:56pm UTC](https://forum.getkirby.com/t/difference-between-textarea-and-writer/30708/5 "2024-02-12T20:56:09Z")

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For more complex stuff, the writer field alone doesn’t make that much sense (in my opionion) and you would probably rather chose the blocks or layout fields.

Back in the days, Kirby started out with Markdown and Kirbytext (shortcodes, that you can use to extend Markdown in all sort of ways).