It looks like you're nesting some double quotation marks which makes the textarea.maxchar look like it's outside the quotes.  That would make it look as if it's an attribute instead of the value of an attribute.

try either escaping your internal quotes with a backslash or using apostrophes around the outside and double quotes on the inside.

-G

Thanks for your response. I've tried using apostrophes for the outside attributes and keeping the internal double quotes. I'm now getting a syntax error when the web page is loaded. The following is the new code from the JSP:

<TD><html:textarea property="businessPurpose" cols="82" rows="4"
                             onkeydown='textCounter(this.form.businessPurpose, this.form.busPurposeLen, <bean:message key="textarea.maxchar"/>)'
                             onkeyup='textCounter(this.form.businessPurpose, this.form.busPurposeLen, <bean:message key="textarea.maxchar"/>)' /><BR><BR></TD>

The line from the HTML source that is causing the syntax error is:
<TD><textarea name="businessPurpose" cols="82" rows="4" onkeydown="textCounter(this.form.businessPurpose, this.form.busPurposeLen, <bean:message key="textarea.maxchar"/>)"
onkeyup="textCounter(this.form.businessPurpose, this.form.busPurposeLen, <bean:message key="textarea.maxchar"/>)"></textarea><BR><BR></TD>

I understand the syntax error. The bean tag is being generated in the HTML instead of the value. Is there a way I can pass the value instead. I've also tried escaping the internal quotes but this causes another error.

Tom

It seems it doesn't recognize the bean tag... Have you included it in this JSP before using @taglib tag? I've been working for long with Struts and nowadays I still forget it some times... :)