inserting text into a text field

[volatileboy]

Hey there people I was hoping someone can help me out.

 

im making something like this form im using to post this message, trying to make buttons that insert text/bbcode into the textarea, ive manage to get basic ones to work but now im stuck.

 

how would I for example do either side of highlighted text or if no text was highlighted to just place and put the cursor inbetween them?

 

any help is appreciated!

[MadTechie]

try this

<script type="text/javascript">
<!--
function formatText(el,tagstart,tagend) {
  	if (el.setSelectionRange) {
		el.value = el.value.substring(0,el.selectionStart) + tagstart + el.value.substring(el.selectionStart,el.selectionEnd) + tagend + el.value.substring(el.selectionEnd,el.value.length)
  	}
  	else {
  		// IE code here...
  	}
  }
//-->
</script>

<form name="my_form">
  <input type="button" value="BOLD" onclick="formatText(document.getElementById('myta'),'<b>','</b>')"/>
  <textarea id="myta" rows="10" cols="30"></textarea>
  <input type="submit" value="SUBMIT" />
  </form>