[SOLVED] Private messaging system help

[supermerc]

Hey i followed the tutorial on how to make the private messaging system. When it send a message you can only send the message to a user from a drop down list, but i want my users to be able to enter the username into a field instead but i dont know how.

this is my code

[code]<?php
// Process the message once it has been sent
if (isset($_POST['newMessage'])) {
  // Escape and prepare our variables for insertion into the database
  // This is also where you would run any sort of editing, such as BBCode parsing
  $to  = mysql_real_escape_string($_POST['to']);
  $from = $_SESSION['userID'];
  $sub  = mysql_real_escape_string($_POST['subject']);
  $msg  = mysql_real_escape_string($_POST['message']);
   
  // Handle all your specific error checking here
  if (empty($to) || empty($sub) || empty($msg)) {
    $error = "<p>You must select a recipient and provide a subject and message.</p>\n";
  } else {
    // Notice carefully how we only have to provide the five values we previously discussed
    $sql = "INSERT INTO myPMs (to_id, from_id, time_sent, subject, message) VALUES ('$to', '$from', NOW(), '$sub', '$msg')";
    if (!mysql_query($sql)) {
      $error = "<p>Could not send message!</p>\n";
    } else {
      $message = "<p>Message sent successfully!</p>\n";
    }
  }
}

echo isset($error) ? $error : '';
echo isset($message) ? $message : '';

echo "<form name=\"newMessage\" action=\"\" method=\"post\">\n";
echo "<table border=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\">\n";
echo "<tr>\n";
echo "<td>To:</td>\n";
echo "<td><select name=\"to\">\n";
echo "<option value=\"\"></option>\n";

// Collect and loop through all usernames that are not the current user
$sql = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM users WHERE id != '$_SESSION[userid]' ORDER BY username");
if (mysql_num_rows($sql) > 0) {
  while ($x = mysql_fetch_assoc($sql)) echo "<option value=\"$x[id]\">$x[username]</option>\n";
}

echo "</select></td>\n";
echo "</tr>\n";
echo "<tr>\n";
echo "<td>Subject:</td>\n";
echo "<td><input type=\"text\" name=\"subject\" value=\"" . (isset($error) ? $_POST['subject'] : '') . "\" maxlength=\"50\" /></td>\n";
echo "</tr>\n";
echo "<tr>\n";
echo "<td>Message:</td>\n";
echo "<td>\n";
echo "<textarea name=\"message\" cols=\"\" rows=\"\">" . (isset($error) ? $_POST['message'] : '') . "</textarea>\n";
echo "</td>\n";
echo "</tr>\n";
echo "<tr>\n";
echo "<td></td>\n";
echo "<td><input type=\"submit\" name=\"newMessage\" value=\"Send\" /></td>\n";
echo "</tr>\n";
echo "</table>\n";
echo "</form>\n";
?> [/code]

Please help me