Tall Text

Theme-aware multiline plain text fields for Azure DevOps work items. No more one-line truncation.

Azure DevOps shows multiline plainText fields as one squashed line on the work item form. Tall Text swaps that line for a real text box that shows everything and matches your theme.

Features

• Renders the whole field, with internal scrolling past your configured row count.
• Follows your theme live, dark or light.
• Writes through on every keystroke, so a quick save keeps what you typed.
• Drag the corner to make the box taller; the form follows.
• Empty fields collapse to a single watermark row and expand on focus.
• Optional help text renders under the box.
• A ReadOnly switch renders any instance display-only while keeping the text selectable and copyable.
• Run several instances on one form, each bound to its own field.
• A missing or detached field shows a friendly message instead of a broken frame.
• Accessible by default: label from the field name, help text wired to aria-describedby, visible focus ring.

Set up in three steps

Step zero: an inherited process

You cannot add a custom control to a locked system process. If your project runs one (Agile, Basic, Scrum, CMMI), first create an inherited process and move the project onto it. This is a one-time step.

Step one: a true plainText field

Watch this trap. The process editor's "Text (multiple lines)" field type creates an HTML field, and Tall Text binds only plainText fields. The Field picker will not offer HTML fields, so a wrong binding cannot happen, but the field you just made in the UI will not appear either. Create a true plainText field with one REST call:

POST https://dev.azure.com/{organization}/_apis/wit/fields?api-version=7.1

{
  "name": "Blocker Notes",
  "referenceName": "Custom.BlockerNotes",
  "type": "plainText",
  "usage": "workItem"
}

Then attach it to your work item type with "Add an existing field" in the process editor. Existing plainText fields, common after on-prem migrations, work as-is.

Step two: place the control

In the process editor, open the work item type and choose "Add a custom control". Pick Tall Text, bind the Field input, and set the optional inputs to taste.

Control inputs

No lock-in

Your text lives in an ordinary work item field, never in the extension. Uninstall Tall Text and every character stays exactly where it was in the field; re-add the native control to see it on the form again.

Privacy

No telemetry, no analytics, no external calls. The control talks only to the Azure DevOps frame that hosts it.

On-prem

Tall Text is built and tested against Azure DevOps Services. It is not yet tested on Azure DevOps Server, and I would rather say so than let you find out.

Roadmap

• v1.1: clickable links inside the text.
• v1.2: per-user persisted box height.

Source and support

MIT licensed. Source, issues, and feature requests live at github.com/turnert2005/tall-text.