i use a firefox add-on called 'stylish' that has specific textareas sized to my preferred size per site..
so even though it's not as click/drag-ie, it does the same thing in the end.
and if i really am going to type in a novella for a post, the add-on "It's all text" allows me to click a little 'Edit' button below the textarea and it opens my editor of choice.. when i save from the editor, it pastes it back here automatically..
so i think you'll find that different browsers offer different ways to do what you want..
[except for IE of course
]
