I didn't when I used default selection color. I remember starting doing it because I really enjoyed OS X yellow selection option.
Poll: Do you select text while reading?
151–160 of 366 posts
Re: Poll: Do you select text while reading?
#152When people see that I highlight text while I'm reading, they always want to know what practical reason it serves. The simplest answer is that it kind of helps me track the text, but it's less than that. It also isn't quite just a nervous habit. The only description that makes sense to me is that it feels like a physical connection to the page. More like spinning a pen, or rolling an object in your hand while you thi…
I feel that is a vary tech-person oriented habit. A gut feeling tells me the poll results will be very different among non techie folks. I remember my parents getting annoyed with my highlighting when helping them read family emails.
Re: Poll: Do you select text while reading?
#153When people see that I highlight text while I'm reading, they always want to know what practical reason it serves. The simplest answer is that it kind of helps me track the text, but it's less than that. It also isn't quite just a nervous habit. The only description that makes sense to me is that it feels like a physical connection to the page. More like spinning a pen, or rolling an object in your hand while you thi…
Good call. Like how I used to drag highlight boxes on the desktop when I was thinking of what to do next. I never wanted to select anything, I just liked to do it.
Re: Poll: Do you select text while reading?
#154When the lines are ridiculously long and/or there isn't enough line spacing. Like on Hacker News.
Re: Poll: Do you select text while reading?
#155When people see that I highlight text while I'm reading, they always want to know what practical reason it serves. The simplest answer is that it kind of helps me track the text, but it's less than that. It also isn't quite just a nervous habit. The only description that makes sense to me is that it feels like a physical connection to the page. More like spinning a pen, or rolling an object in your hand while you thi…
its called "stimming". i do it too
Re: Poll: Do you select text while reading?
#156Sometimes I highlight from the middle of one line of text to the middle of the next line of text, trying to get the start and end of the highlight to line up exactly.
Re: Poll: Do you select text while reading?
#157Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes, the New York Times was the worst. In a similar vein, snopes.com also forbids selecting on the page. And when they "fixed" Chrome so that clicking and dragging from within a selection dragged the selection instead of starting a new selection, I died a little inside. Why would I want to drag text on a web page? I guess random clicking and selecting is no more of a useful use case, but I still find myself messing t…
Why would I want to drag text on a web page I drag selected text to between tabs to create a new tab with a Google search for that text. I do that a lot.
Do you know about the "Search Google for '%query%'" in the right-click menu?
Re: Poll: Do you select text while reading?
#158I do it sometimes compulsively, but I think it started for a legitimate reason: clicking to make sure the text has focus. That way when I use up/down/PageUp/PageDown to scroll, the text actually scrolls. If there is a textbox that has focus, up or down jumps to that textbox instead which drives me bonkers. Also, recent versions of Firefox have a bug where after you bookmark a page, if you've added a tag, the page los…
If you were on a MAC you would only have to make sure the mouse cursor is over the area you wanted to scroll. :P
I am actually using a MacBook Air, but I prefer keyboard to two-finger scrolling most of the time.
Re: Poll: Do you select text while reading?
#159When people see that I highlight text while I'm reading, they always want to know what practical reason it serves. The simplest answer is that it kind of helps me track the text, but it's less than that. It also isn't quite just a nervous habit. The only description that makes sense to me is that it feels like a physical connection to the page. More like spinning a pen, or rolling an object in your hand while you thi…
As I read each of the options above, I was thinking similar thoughts. It's kind of a text tracking thing and somewhat habitual.
I might highlight one section of text or paragraph and not another. Sometimes I highlight nothing. But, if it is a lengthy bit of text, I often find myself highlighting swaths of text for some reason.
This only applies to when I'm using a mouse.
Re: Poll: Do you select text while reading?
#160When people see that I highlight text while I'm reading, they always want to know what practical reason it serves. The simplest answer is that it kind of helps me track the text, but it's less than that. It also isn't quite just a nervous habit. The only description that makes sense to me is that it feels like a physical connection to the page. More like spinning a pen, or rolling an object in your hand while you thi…
Being active with my hands helps me pay attention. Doodling while talking on the phone or listening to a lecture are other examples.