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Just let me select text

aartaka.me

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Re: Just let me select text

#271

Post by MPSimmons »

bobbylarrybobby wrote: post #114
catapart wrote: post #21

As a web dev, I fully agree with this, but with a huge exception: clickable text. Anything that is meant to be read as content should absolutely, without fail, be selectable and copyable (assuming appropriate permissions). But stuff like tab headers, buttons, or even text-sparse tiles - things meant for the user to click on - can, and usually should , prevent text selection. It is super annoying to be clicking back a…

It's always bothered me that links on webpages are single click to open. They should require double clicking to open (like just about everything else on a computer) and single click should be used to start selecting text, like everywhere else on a computer.

Doesn't the click cause the browser to "go" on mouseUp? Selecting is clicking then dragging - this seems like a clear enough difference to me that I've never had problems. In fact, sometimes I will click, and think, "oh I actually don't want to go there" and will drag off the link and release the mouse button and it doesn't take me there.

Re: Just let me select text

#272

Post by quitit »

For websites there are extensions specifically to address this and other terrible behaviours, one such example is Stop The Madness. https://underpassapp.com/StopTheMadness/

It includes a webpage demonstrating the typical behaviours you can correct:

https://underpassapp.com/StopTheMadness/test.html

(The screen capture function also does auto OCR for those pesky apps, even lets you translate it right then and there - no need to go into the photos app as mentioned by the author.)

Re: Just let me select text

#273

Post by MangoToupe »

spullara wrote: post #251
bambax wrote: post #232

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes but the joke is moot, because on the web, you can't really make text non-selectable (you can try, but it can be defeated extremely easily). In an app, undoing that is pretty much impossible (or at least, above my pay grade). This is one of a million reasons why apps are so bad.

on Mac/iOS you can just take a screenshot and then select out of the image.

Yup, I've used this for years. See also: not being able to select certain text without clicking a link (say, in a search result).

Re: Just let me select text

#274

Post by bapak »

cosmojg wrote: post #225

I must admit, one of my favorite recent-ish Android[1] features is that all text is made selectable in the app switcher using on-device OCR. Regardless of the app[2], you can just swipe up and start selecting text. [1] ...at least on the Google Pixel. [2] ...unless it's a banking app and it blocks permissions for screenshots and similar things.

Same for iOS, just not immediately possible. In iOS the new screenshot UI makes it a little easier, before it would need at least 3 taps and a couple of seconds to make it selectable

Re: Just let me select text

#275

Post by latexr »

kulahan wrote: post #239
moralestapia wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are people these days so dense (i.e. stupid) they couldn't figure out it was a joke by the author?

I recently read something that stated we've never really had more than 30% of students in the US at a level of mathematical understanding where they can tell that 3/4ths and 0.75 are the same thing, conceptually. I cannot stop thinking about this; it honestly explains so much.

The third-pound burger flopped because consumers failed to understand that one third is bigger than one fourth.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third-pound_burger#Marketing_f...

Re: Just let me select text

#276

Post by JayShower »

zelphirkalt wrote: post #260

I have a habit of selecting and highlighting text on computer screens, while reading. I have no issues tracking lines usually, but somehow I still select and highlight. Maybe it is just easier to track lines this way. When I see some web page, that prevents this, then that website gets a -50 reputation score out of 100 in my book. So if the site is perfect in every other way (almost no site is) then -50 still makes i…

I also have the habit and am not sure why. I just find myself double-clicking and highlighting whatever I'm reading. Someone noticed me doing it once and asked if I had a tic.

Re: Just let me select text

#277

Post by mastercheif »

zelphirkalt wrote: post #260

I have a habit of selecting and highlighting text on computer screens, while reading. I have no issues tracking lines usually, but somehow I still select and highlight. Maybe it is just easier to track lines this way. When I see some web page, that prevents this, then that website gets a -50 reputation score out of 100 in my book. So if the site is perfect in every other way (almost no site is) then -50 still makes i…

I was worried I was the only one who did this. Glad to know I'm not alone out there.

Re: Just let me select text

#278

Post by whstl »

throwaway0123_5 wrote: post #265
whstl wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

100% disagree. Not everyone is fluent in every language, and not every website works perfectly with the browser's translator. There will be situations where people will want to translate that ONE word that is actually in a button or tab, and isn't selectable because someone thought they knew better.

In Firefox my tabs have text, and I frequently rearrange tabs with my cursor. I think this is a pretty common usage pattern (I do it on a daily basis). It would be an enormous pain if most of the area on the tab turned my arrow cursor into an I-beam cursor that I couldn't move the tab with. I checked Chrome and it looks like the tabs work the same way. While having the text in the tabs is very useful to know what is…

The example I am answering to was prefaced as being by a web dev, so I am only talking about websites here.

For Apps agree, as I can install different ones and pick the language regardless of where I am traveling, etc. And page titles (that go on browser tabs) rarely need selection/translation.

Re: Just let me select text

#279

Post by will_pseudonym »

zelphirkalt wrote: post #260

I have a habit of selecting and highlighting text on computer screens, while reading. I have no issues tracking lines usually, but somehow I still select and highlight. Maybe it is just easier to track lines this way. When I see some web page, that prevents this, then that website gets a -50 reputation score out of 100 in my book. So if the site is perfect in every other way (almost no site is) then -50 still makes i…

> I have a habit of selecting and highlighting text on computer screens, while reading.

"There are dozens of us!"

Re: Just let me select text

#280

Post by ninkendo »

kulahan wrote: post #239
moralestapia wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are people these days so dense (i.e. stupid) they couldn't figure out it was a joke by the author?

I recently read something that stated we've never really had more than 30% of students in the US at a level of mathematical understanding where they can tell that 3/4ths and 0.75 are the same thing, conceptually. I cannot stop thinking about this; it honestly explains so much.

That’s probably one of those cases where they use two different statistics to assume a conclusion, e.g. maybe only 30% of students pass a particular profiency test, and then add to the fact that that test is the minimum level where fractions/percentages are expected to be known, and combine it to make a scary sounding headline.

You might be right but, citation needed.

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