HTML_Quickform - pre-populate a textarea field

Hi all, I've run into a problem trying to pre-populate a form. I'm pulling data out of a database and am presenting them for the user to edit. Setting the 'value' for text inputs works fine. i.e. this works: $attrs = array("class"=>"FCinput", "value"=>"$title"); $this->addElement('text', 'title', 'Title', $attrs); However 'value' isn't valid for textareas. The text needs to go between the <textarea> and </textarea> tags. i.e. this _doesn't_ work: $attrs = array("class"=>"FCtextarea", "value"=>"$shortDesc", "rows"=>"10", "cols"=>"33"); $this->addElement('textarea', 'shortDesc', 'Short Description<br />(1K max)', $attrs); I haven't been able to figure out how to get this output: <textarea>$shortDesc</textarea> Any pointers welcome. Carpe viam, Mike Michael Larocque Chief Cook and Bottle Washer Prolumina Communications Inc. http://prolumina.com/~mlarocque/