function CountLeft(field, max) {
			if (field.value.length > max) {
				field.value = field.value.substring(0, max);
			} else { 	
				nowCount = max - field.value.length;
				document.getElementById(field.name+"_cnt").childNodes[0].nodeValue = nowCount;
			}
		}
		
		//this function needs to run onload to preset the number of chars left for each textarea
		function PreSetCharCnt(){
			var textAreaList = getElementsByTagNames('textarea');
			
			for(i=0;i<textAreaList.length;i++) {
				formEl = "document.forms[0]." + textAreaList[i].name;
				if (textAreaList[i].name == "ChallengeCrux") {
					nowCount = 512;
				}else if(textAreaList[i].name == "ChallengeText") { 
					nowCount = 2000;
				}else if(textAreaList[i].name == "Situation") { 
					nowCount = 2500;
				}else if(textAreaList[i].name == "definition_short") { 
					nowCount = 350;
				}else if(textAreaList[i].name == "definition_long") { 
					nowCount = 2500;
				}else if(textAreaList[i].name.substring(0,4) == "Step") { 
					nowCount = 2500;
				}else {
					nowCount = 1500;
				}
				
				CountLeft(eval(formEl),nowCount);
			}
		}
		
		function getElementsByTagNames(list,obj) {
			if (!obj) var obj = document;
			var tagNames = list.split(',');
			var resultArray = new Array();
			for (var i=0;i<tagNames.length;i++) {
				var tags = obj.getElementsByTagName(tagNames[i]);
				for (var j=0;j<tags.length;j++) {
					resultArray.push(tags[j]);
				}
			}
			var testNode = resultArray[0];
			if (!testNode) return [];
			if (testNode.sourceIndex) {
				resultArray.sort(function (a,b) {
						return a.sourceIndex - b.sourceIndex;
				});
			}
			else if (testNode.compareDocumentPosition) {
				resultArray.sort(function (a,b) {
						return 3 - (a.compareDocumentPosition(b) & 6);
				});
			}
			return resultArray;
		}