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Just let me select text

aartaka.me

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Re: Just let me select text

#573

Post by fkyoureadthedoc »

Arainach wrote: post #500
fkyoureadthedoc wrote: post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 cou…

I consider this a bad faith comment given the amount of detail you described taking a screenshot vs copying the text.

Anyway, it's not a noteworthy amount of effort, no. If your text selection of the button was blocked, which is the whole point of this discussion, the other methods would be a fine alternative. Or would you give up because it's too much effort?

I just tried both on the reply button for this very comment box.

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

This didn't work. Text is not selectable. Do you know why it doesn't work? Because user-select: none is the default user agent style on input[type=submit].

How about the screenshot?

    - keyboard shortcut for screenshot
    - click and drag
    - click chatgpt tab
    - keyboard shortcut for paste
How about the phone app?

    - open translate app
    - tap camera
    - point at button
Again, neither of these were a noteworthy amount of effort.

Re: Just let me select text

#574

Post by fkyoureadthedoc »

catapart wrote: post #161
fkyoureadthedoc wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Yeah, because fuck people who require additional accessibility options, right? Just do whatever you want and then listen to your actual users' feedback. I worked on an application that I had to make button text not selectable because the old people using it kept selecting text on the buttons by mistake instead of clicking/activating the button and getting stuck during a clinical trial. Should I have left it selecta…

Thank you! Feels great to hear from another dev whom clearly has some shared experience with me. I can't count the screen-reader and keyboard-navigation based tickets I've had to field, but when it comes to translations, I haven't had a problem one. I empathize with translation, as I have to do it to pretty much every chipset firmware documentation I come across. So I just don't really understand where all of these i…

Also worth noting that input[type=button|submit] are also by default user-select: none from the browser user agent stylesheet.

Re: Just let me select text

#576

Post by commakozzi »

will_pseudonym wrote: post #279
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!"

I think there are way more than dozens of us.

Re: Just let me select text

#578

Post by pabs3 »

aartaka wrote: post #475
IncreasePosts wrote: post #182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or by visiting a rendering which doesn't support CSS at all: eg https://aartaka.me/select-text.txt

This hack is exactly why I do multi-format posts.

I note the non-HTML posts look like Markdown, why do you use .txt as the extension instead of .md .mdwn or .markdown?

Re: Just let me select text

#579

Post by maerF0x0 »

IMO it's just another sign of us users being betrayed by our browsers.

A website should not be able to disable or effectively block any functionality I wish my browser to have, including selecting text and right clicks.

Re: Just let me select text

#580

Post by pmontra »

kokanee wrote: post #227
pmontra wrote: post #221

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nice catch. Luckily I can use uMatrix to disable css and select and copy the post. Oddly the selection is transparent. Firefox Android. > I’m lonely. Like everyone-ish else. Naturally, I’m on Bumble

No browser extensions necessary, just right click > inspect element > select , then turn off the CSS rules you don't want.

That's not an option on mobile.
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