form validation for the RTE teaxtarea

Hi

is is possible to use client side (javascript) form validation with the RTE text area?

I read in a previous post that the original text area is only populated when the submit button is pressed, and when I submit the form using javascript form.submit() I don't get a value for the text area (if it is pre-populated) on the submission screen, or (if the text area is empty) the form validation gives me an empty field error.

not a problem if not, will do the validation server side

cheers

Terry