<!doctype html> <html lang="en"> <head> <meta charset="utf-8"> <title>One JavaScript instance per day - handles characters in textarea into each line</title> <script> function clicka(){ console.log("aaa"); var aa = document.getElementById("text"); var lines = aa.value.split("/n"); var bbb = document.getElementById("result"); var string = ""; for(i=0;i<lines.length;i++){ string+= lines[i]+"<br />";/////</br> and <br /> should be used with <br /> } bbb.innerHTML=string } </script> </head> <body> <textarea id="text" placeholder="Please enter multiple lines of text"></textarea> <div id = "result"></div> <a href="javascript:void(0);" onClick="clicka()">handle line breaks</a> </body> </html>