Here's our first form

Firstname:
Lastname:
State: or province
Country:
Do like baseball? football? basketball
How did you spend your summer?

Notes:

Field type tag size attrib value attrib Element content other attribs default value
Input Box <input type=text /> box width default n/a maxlength value attrib
Selection List <select /> box height each option value <option> tags multiple selected attrib in <option>
Checkbox <input type=checkbox /> n/a the value passed if checked n/a checked checked attrib
Option Buttons
(radio buttons)		 <input type=radio /> n/a the value passed if selected n/a checked checked attrib
Text Area <textarea> n/a n/a Field value rows, cols, wrap The element content
Hidden <input type=hidden /> n/a the initial value n/a   value attrib
Submit button <input type=submit /> n/a Button text & value n/a   value attrib
Command button <input type=button /> n/a n/a n/a   n/a
Custom button <button> n/a n/a Field value   Field value
Reset button <input type=reset /> n/a button text n/a n/a n/a
Image <input type=image /> n/a n/a   src=url value attrib

Note that the default value of Textarea fields is the content of the <textarea> element.  That content looks like ordinary HTML code, but it is not parsed as HTML.  Carriage returns, spaces, tabs, tags, and entities all appear within the field.  If the </textarea> tag is missing, the rest of the page just appears as the default value of the field!