So, this poll didn't tell me a simple question: do more people select text while reading or not?
Poll: Do you select text while reading?
291–300 of 366 posts
Re: Poll: Do you select text while reading?
#292In an HCI class I took over 10 years ago at university I did an eye gaze study where I was the observee. The professor noticed that I selected text as I went along to help focus on where I was reading. Good to know that there are others like me out there. I wonder if there are any practical implications for this?
Yeah, it is the same as me. I select paragraph so I can focus on reading it exclusively (among other things).I also didn't thought others did it.
Other than allowing people to select text on your webpage, I don't see any immediate HCI implications.
Re: Poll: Do you select text while reading?
#293Earlier 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.
Any idea if this exists for Firefox? I've been looking for it for a while. It's the major feature I miss from Chrome. I've had enough of Ctrl-C, Ctrl-T, Ctrl-V.
Re: Poll: Do you select text while reading?
#294Sometimes, when the paragraph is wide, it's hard to continue reading on the same line and that interrupts and slow my reading down. I do it so that I stay on the same line. Sort of like a ruler
Re: Poll: Do you select text while reading?
#295Science says yes:
http://jeffhuang.com/Final_CursorBehavior_CHI11.pdf
More precisely, the paper above ("No Clicks, No Problem") demonstrates that tracking cursor movements provides useful predictive value of reader interest. Selecting text is a special case of this.
Re: Poll: Do you select text while reading?
#296When 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…
this. finally I can describe it to people.
Re: Poll: Do you select text while reading?
#297* Contrast
* Search web for highlighted terms
* Open new tab with selected link (when no proper anchor provided or when I want to open some part of given link)
Re: Poll: Do you select text while reading?
#298Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes this is definitely what I do too. I also tend to repeatedly tap the paragraph on the trackpad, so that fits well with your nervous habit analogy.
Yep, same. Sites that do things like auto-search highlighted words drive me nuts because of it.
Worse: some like Trello do enter in edit mode.
Re: Poll: Do you select text while reading?
#299When 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'm curious to know if you use a mouse or trackpad. I get the same connection with the page by twitching the page with two finger scrolling on my trackpad.
Re: Poll: Do you select text while reading?
#300No. It messes with my clipboard, hard. So I try not to do it, I like to have a clean clipboard history for re-use.
BUT: I tend to select-all + copy any text of a form (this comment) before submitting. You never know when browser/back/website/connection is going to abandon you.