Limit number of characters shown

Hi,
 
Can anyone tell me if I can limit the number of characters to display with
taglib? I define the field with:
 
<content:textField name='theName' display="false" valueId="theName"
defaultValue=""/>
 
And then, show it with:
 
<bean:write name='theName' filter='false'/>
 
Is there any way of doing it?
 
Thanks in advance for your helping.
 
Regards.
 
Alex.