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Just let me select text

aartaka.me

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Re: Just let me select text

#491

Post by lomase »

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.

They should require double clicking to open (like just about everything else on a computer)

That is some Windows UI stuff, If I recall correctly in OSX you don't double click as much.

Re: Just let me select text

#492

Post by TeMPOraL »

kuekacang wrote: post #248
nahumba wrote: post #188

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you know how many times i wanted to select the clickable link in google search result?

Back in the day I requested chrome feature "copy text" in addition to "copy link" on context menu. Now I tried it it's no longer there.

It's not? Just checked a Chrome instance I had handy, it has all three options in the context menu - "Copy", "Copy link address" and "Copy link to highlight". First one copies text in between ... , second one copies the href attribute, and third one copies the link to page you're on with that weird URL framgment-based arbitrary text anchor/highlight scheme.

All three work on Google search results for me.

Re: Just let me select text

#493

Post by bonoboTP »

indymike wrote: post #306

I get a kick out of it when a product manager comes suggesting we diable text selection. "oh, you want to disable the single most usable and powerful interoperability feature in our product?" "Yeah. Do we really want people leaving our app with their data?" By leaving, do you mean kicking it off the phone or switching to another app and getting something done? "Oh, yeah, they are just getting something done. But not…

Disabling right click was one of the most common requests from site owners to webmasters back around 2000. They mostly wanted to prevent "Save as..." on the images, but copying article text out was also part of it.

Re: Just let me select text

#494

Post by aaaronic »

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…

Ditto!

Re: Just let me select text

#495

Post by bonoboTP »

pbasista wrote: post #379

When I encounter a website which does not allow text selection, copying or right click, I usually enable the "Absolute Enable Right Click & Copy" browser extension which removes all of these restrictions. Such restrictive practices, in my opinion, not only make the website less useful to the user. It also intentionally alienates its users. I cannot think of a rational reason to do something like that.

> It also intentionally alienates its users.

Only the tinkerer-type techies. Most people don't understand why right click doesn't work, they don't have a mental model of what is responsible for what and things are often broken in mysterious ways anyway. If users are not alienated by how the web looks without an adblocker (try it once on some mainstream news site or blog or recipe site!), they surely won't be alienated by unselectable text.

The rational reason is to avoid getting their content "stolen", or having the user leave the site to do something else with the saved content.

Re: Just let me select text

#496

Post by jowea »

weinzierl wrote: post #440

Places that prevent selection completely is not something I encounter that often. What I do experience regularly is places where selection is broken or unnecessarily fiddly. On iOS I find it often easier to screenshot and select in the image. Screenshot, select, paste is a much smoother workflow than trying to select what I want three times, failing, selecting too much on one end, not enough on the other, copy, paste…

I remember seeing at least one site where the result of copying is garbled text.

Re: Just let me select text

#497

Post by jmull »

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…

Please don't try to second guess what should be selectable/copyable!

Re: Just let me select text

#498

Post by anigbrowl »

sethammons wrote: post #230
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…

No, text should be selectable, even when links. The amount of times I've accidentally highlighted instead of clicking? Maybe a couple? The amount of times that frustrated or confused me? Absolutely zero. I want to select the text of a link and copy the text of a link. I want to do this but I run into issues _daily_, esp. on mobile. PagerDuty app, I'm looking at you! Mobile seems to assume that you, in no world ever,…

* note that I did not include anchor links; those are meant to be inline within text content and should therefore be selectable.

Re: Just let me select text

#499

Post by mvdtnz »

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…

[flagged]

Re: Just let me select text

#500

Post by Arainach »

fkyoureadthedoc wrote: post #172
klausa wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Would you say any of these are "not that onerous" compared to copying the character? The argument here isn't that it's _impossible_ to do that with copying disabled, it's that it's _more annoying_. By providing a list of _more annoying_ ways to do something, you're reinforcing the argument, not refuting it.

yes it's absolutely just as easy to screenshot something to my clipboard and paste it, as to try and select text from a button without clicking it. yes it's absolutely just as easy to point my phone's translate app at the button. any more questions?

One involves clicking just before the button and dragging to just after the button (or vice versa).

The other involves opening a screenshot tool, selecting a rectangle, going to a website (that I might have to pay for?), pasting the image, waiting some seconds to cause global warming, getting some text back, clicking just after that text to just before that text.

How is that a similar level of effort?

The first I could walk someone who had never used a computer through over the phone in 1995. The second I wouldn't want to walk some of my coworkers through today.

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