Try this piece of code I wrote this morning, it will highlight a defined set of words:
<html>
<head>
<title></title>
<!-- Load jQuery -->
<script type="text/javascript" src="http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.4/jquery.min.js"></script>
<!-- The javascript xontaining the plugin and the code to init the plugin -->
<script type="text/javascript">
$(function() {
// let's init the plugin, that we called "highlight".
// We will highlight the words "hello" and "world",
// and set the input area to a widht and height of 500 and 250 respectively.
$("#container").highlight({
words: ["hello","world"],
width: 500,
height: 250
});
});
// the plugin that would do the trick
(function($){
$.fn.extend({
highlight: function() {
// the main class
var pluginClass = function() {};
// init the class
// Bootloader
pluginClass.prototype.__init = function (element) {
try {
this.element = element;
} catch (err) {
this.error(err);
}
};
// centralized error handler
pluginClass.prototype.error = function (e) {
// manage error and exceptions here
//console.info("error!",e);
};
// Centralized routing function
pluginClass.prototype.execute = function (fn, options) {
try {
options = $.extend({},options);
if (typeof(this[fn]) == "function") {
var output = this[fn].apply(this, [options]);
} else {
this.error("undefined_function");
}
} catch (err) {
this.error(err);
}
};
// **********************
// Plugin Class starts here
// **********************
// init the component
pluginClass.prototype.init = function (options) {
try {
// the element's reference ( $("#container") ) is stored into "this.element"
var scope = this;
this.options = options;
// just find the different elements we'll need
this.highlighterContainer = this.element.find('#highlighterContainer');
this.inputContainer = this.element.find('#inputContainer');
this.textarea = this.inputContainer.find('textarea');
this.highlighter = this.highlighterContainer.find('#highlighter');
// apply the css
this.element.css('position','relative');
// place both the highlight container and the textarea container
// on the same coordonate to superpose them.
this.highlighterContainer.css({
'position': 'absolute',
'left': '0',
'top': '0',
'border': '1px dashed #ff0000',
'width': this.options.width,
'height': this.options.height,
'cursor': 'text'
});
this.inputContainer.css({
'position': 'absolute',
'left': '0',
'top': '0',
'border': '1px solid #000000'
});
// now let's make sure the highlit div and the textarea will superpose,
// by applying the same font size and stuffs.
// the highlighter must have a white text so it will be invisible
this.highlighter.css({
'padding': '7px',
'color': '#eeeeee',
'background-color': '#ffffff',
'margin': '0px',
'font-size': '11px',
'font-family': '"lucida grande",tahoma,verdana,arial,sans-serif'
});
// the textarea must have a transparent background so we can see the highlight div behind it
this.textarea.css({
'background-color': 'transparent',
'padding': '5px',
'margin': '0px',
'font-size': '11px',
'width': this.options.width,
'height': this.options.height,
'font-family': '"lucida grande",tahoma,verdana,arial,sans-serif'
});
// apply the hooks
this.highlighterContainer.bind('click', function() {
scope.textarea.focus();
});
this.textarea.bind('keyup', function() {
// when we type in the textarea,
// we want the text to be processed and re-injected into the div behind it.
scope.applyText($(this).val());
});
} catch (err) {
this.error(err);
}
return true;
};
pluginClass.prototype.applyText = function (text) {
try {
var scope = this;
// parse the text:
// replace all the line braks by <br/>, and all the double spaces by the html version
text = this.replaceAll(text,'\n','<br/>');
text = this.replaceAll(text,' ',' ');
// replace the words by a highlighted version of the words
for (var i=0;i<this.options.words.length;i++) {
text = this.replaceAll(text,this.options.words[i],'<span style="background-color: #D8DFEA;">'+this.options.words[i]+'</span>');
}
// re-inject the processed text into the div
this.highlighter.html(text);
} catch (err) {
this.error(err);
}
return true;
};
// "replace all" function
pluginClass.prototype.replaceAll = function(txt, replace, with_this) {
return txt.replace(new RegExp(replace, 'g'),with_this);
}
// don't worry about this part, it's just the required code for the plugin to hadle the methods and stuffs. Not relevant here.
//**********************
// process
var fn;
var options;
if (arguments.length == 0) {
fn = "init";
options = {};
} else if (arguments.length == 1 && typeof(arguments[0]) == 'object') {
fn = "init";
options = $.extend({},arguments[0]);
} else {
fn = arguments[0];
options = $.extend({},arguments[1]);
}
$.each(this, function(idx, item) {
// if the component is not yet existing, create it.
if ($(item).data('highlightPlugin') == null) {
$(item).data('highlightPlugin', new pluginClass());
$(item).data('highlightPlugin').__init($(item));
}
$(item).data('highlightPlugin').execute(fn, options);
});
return this;
}
});
})(jQuery);
</script>
</head>
<body>
<div id="container">
<div id="highlighterContainer">
<div id="highlighter">
</div>
</div>
<div id="inputContainer">
<textarea cols="30" rows="10">
</textarea>
</div>
</div>
</body>
</html>
This was written for another post (http://facebook.stackoverflow.com/questions/7497824/how-to-highlight-friends-name-in-facebook-status-update-box-textarea/7597420#7597420), but it seems to be what you’re searching for.