..and the verdict is... both previous posters are correct. There are two problems with your code: 1) You have two form fields, which means that when you press "Insert:" you only get the form fields in form1, when you press "Save" you only get the form fields in form2. Make them one form and you're almost there.

Problem #2 is that, yes, indeed, CGI is making your data sticky, meaning it will ignore the value you're trying to create for SPCtext because SPCtext already has a value of the empty string. Sometimes this a good thing. In my experience it's a pain in the butt. Fortunately, fixing it is as simple as adding a "force=>1" parameter to your textarea line, like so: 

print $query->textarea(-name=>'SPCtext', -cols=>50, -rows=>10, -value=
+>$testText, -force=>1);

[download]
In short, this code is tested and works: 
#!/usr/bin/perl -w

use CGI;

$query = new CGI;

print $query->header;
print $query->start_html();

print $query->start_multipart_form("POST", "test.pl"); 
print "Field Name:"; 
print $query->textfield(-name=>'FieldOne', -size=>25); 
print "Field Type:"; 
print $query->textfield(-name=>'FieldTwo', -size=>25); 
print "Field Length:"; 
print $query->textfield(-name=>'FieldThree', -size=>25);
print "<br>" .  $query->submit('Insert Field'); 

$testText = $query->param('SPCtext') . $query->param('FieldOne') . $qu
+ery->param('FieldTwo') . $query->param('FieldThree');

print $query->textarea(-name=>'SPCtext', -cols=>50, -rows=>10, -value=
+>$testText, -force=>1);
print $query->submit('Save');
print $query->endform();

print $query->end_html();

[download]

Gary Blackburn
Trained Killer

In reply to Re: populating a textarea by Trimbach
in thread populating a textarea by amulcahy

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