# Ellipsis in textarea with fixed height **URL:** \ **Category:** iOS\ **Created:** [September 17, 2026, 2:00pm UTC](https://forum.xojo.com/t/ellipsis-in-textarea-with-fixed-height/88892 "2026-09-17T14:00:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Sharon\_Dankwardt](https://forum.xojo.com/user_avatar/forum.xojo.com/sharon_dankwardt/32/6589_2.png) [@Sharon\_Dankwardt](https://forum.xojo.com/u/Sharon_Dankwardt)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2026, 2:00pm UTC](https://forum.xojo.com/t/ellipsis-in-textarea-with-fixed-height/88892/1 "2026-09-17T14:00:49Z")
Hi everyone, I am working on an iOS mobile app using a **`MobileTable`** with a custom cell container. Inside each row, I have an editable **`TextArea`** used for a task description. Because this description is inside a tight, repeating list row, I need to keep the row footprint relatively compact. However, I am hitting a couple of major walls: 1. **The Row-Height Bloat Issue:** I tried setting `AllowDynamicHeight = True` on the custom cell to let the text expand naturally. However, when the TextArea contains multi-line text or carriage returns, it forces the custom row to calculate extra blank space, creating a massive, empty gap of whitespace underneath the text before the next task entry appears. 2. **The Layout Requirements:** Setting `ReadOnly = True` or using a standard `Label` is not an option for my layout—the user must be able to interact with or edit the text. **What I am trying to achieve:** I want the `TextArea` to stay at a small, fixed height inside the list row so the table remains clean and perfectly aligned. If the database description overflows that fixed space or has a line break, I want to temporarily clip the string or find out _where_ it naturally wraps so I can insert a visual ellipsis (`... 📄`) or an indicator to signal to the user: _“There is more text here, tap this row to open a full screen to view/edit it.”_ Since we can’t reliably use a dummy `Picture.Graphics.TextWidth` loop on iOS due to native margins and dynamic text scaling, how are people handling text overflow indicators inside editable mobile text fields? Is there a clean way to detect line breaks or a native iOS declare that can tell me if a `TextArea` is currently overflowing its visible frame? Any examples or advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks! ---
**Author:** ![Paul\_Chance](https://forum.xojo.com/user_avatar/forum.xojo.com/paul_chance/32/22072_2.png) [@Paul\_Chance](https://forum.xojo.com/u/Paul_Chance)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2026, 4:11pm UTC](https://forum.xojo.com/t/ellipsis-in-textarea-with-fixed-height/88892/2 "2026-09-18T16:11:46Z")
Just a side thought - but if you specify a fixed-width font, you could calculate your required dimensions for a specific character count. ---
**Author:** ![Gilles\_Plante](https://forum.xojo.com/user_avatar/forum.xojo.com/gilles_plante/32/667_2.png) [@Gilles\_Plante](https://forum.xojo.com/u/Gilles_Plante)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2026, 10:43pm UTC](https://forum.xojo.com/t/ellipsis-in-textarea-with-fixed-height/88892/3 "2026-09-18T22:43:16Z")
Disclaimer: I am not an iOS programmer. See if that helps; it’s for Swift: [Text with ellipses](https://developer.apple.com/documentation/swiftui/text/truncationmode) All operating systems have functions to ellipse text: you provide the text and the width, and they return the text ellipsed! My guess is that with declares, you may achieve your goal. HTH ---
**Author:** ![Sharon\_Dankwardt](https://forum.xojo.com/user_avatar/forum.xojo.com/sharon_dankwardt/32/6589_2.png) [@Sharon\_Dankwardt](https://forum.xojo.com/u/Sharon_Dankwardt)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2026, 1:48am UTC](https://forum.xojo.com/t/ellipsis-in-textarea-with-fixed-height/88892/4 "2026-09-20T01:48:31Z")
unfortunately I don’t think that will work for a textarea field ;( ---
**Author:** ![Sharon\_Dankwardt](https://forum.xojo.com/user_avatar/forum.xojo.com/sharon_dankwardt/32/6589_2.png) [@Sharon\_Dankwardt](https://forum.xojo.com/u/Sharon_Dankwardt)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2026, 1:49am UTC](https://forum.xojo.com/t/ellipsis-in-textarea-with-fixed-height/88892/5 "2026-09-20T01:49:40Z")
I’d considered that but fixed font doesn’t look too nice in my app. Thanks Sharon ---
**Author:** ![Sharon\_Dankwardt](https://forum.xojo.com/user_avatar/forum.xojo.com/sharon_dankwardt/32/6589_2.png) [@Sharon\_Dankwardt](https://forum.xojo.com/u/Sharon_Dankwardt)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2026, 12:35pm UTC](https://forum.xojo.com/t/ellipsis-in-textarea-with-fixed-height/88892/6 "2026-09-20T12:35:37Z")
I ended up putting a label on top with the same text that truncated the end and making it the same size as the textarea. Had to shift a bit to get the padding lined up, but works good