Are you previewing in FrontPage or previewing in your browser? It really shouldn't be letting you add and remove the text inside the text area. Check your HTML view for errors in the code, here is an example text area code. Can you post a link for us to see the problem?>
Code:
<textarea align="center" cols="86" rows="27" name="terms">
any text of your choice
</textarea>
You can also style your text area like this...
Code:
<textarea align="center" cols="86" rows="27" name="terms" style="background-color: #FFE4B5; color: #8B0000; margin: 15px; font-family: arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-weight: normal; font-size: 12pt;">
any text of your choice
</text area>