Text areas are free-form text input boxes. They are commonly used to collect user comments, feedback, stories, etc. They are different from text boxes (fields) in that generally there is no or a high limit to the number of characters a text area will accept and that once the capacity of the text area has been reached a vertical scrollbar is enabled to allow viewing of the entire contents of the text area.
Text area objects as added to the page are likely too small for your purposes, so be sure to use the tools in the Work Window to scale the object larger.
Text areas commonly have a default value to prompt the user on the purpose of the text area (e.g., “Please enter your comments here.”)