Search Support

Avoid support scams. We will never ask you to call or text a phone number or share personal information. Please report suspicious activity using the “Report Abuse” option.

Learn More

Is there a faster way to copy unselectable text

  • 1 reply
  • 1 has this problem
  • 14 views
  • Last reply by cor-el

more options

I want to copy any of the text displayed on a page.

When the text is selectable, I can use any method to copy the text to the clipboard. From there I can paste it to another document.

When the text is not selectable, I use this procedure:

  1. Position the mouse pointer over the (unselectable) text.
  2. Open the page context menu and select 'Inspect Element'.
  3. (Now on the inspector tab).
  4. While necessary (rarely), expand the HTML using the '...' placeholders.
  5. Highlight the element containing the text of interest.
  6. Open the inspector context menu, and select 'Copy' -> 'Inner HTML'.

In most cases, it is not necessary to use the '...' placeholder, as using it will just display the interesting text. When it is necessary to drill down into the first element's children, the page has a distinctly different appearance from the other case.

I would like to speed up this process, so coping unselectable text is as fast as copying selectable text, most of the time.

If the element I point at (and would inspect as described above) has no child elements, I would like to have something like 'Copy Inner HTML' appear in the page contect menu.

  • Is there a way to do this, that I have not discovered yet?
  • Can this be done by modifying the browsers CSS?
  • Does this need an Add-on?
  • Does such an Add-on exist?

TIA Doug

I want to copy any of the text displayed on a page. When the text is selectable, I can use any method to copy the text to the clipboard. From there I can paste it to another document. When the text is not selectable, I use this procedure: # Position the mouse pointer over the (unselectable) text. # Open the page context menu and select 'Inspect Element'. # (Now on the inspector tab). # While necessary (rarely), expand the HTML using the '...' placeholders. # Highlight the element containing the text of interest. # Open the inspector context menu, and select 'Copy' -> 'Inner HTML'. In most cases, it is not necessary to use the '...' placeholder, as using it will just display the interesting text. When it is necessary to drill down into the first element's children, the page has a distinctly different appearance from the other case. I would like to speed up this process, so coping unselectable text is as fast as copying selectable text, most of the time. If the element I point at (and would inspect as described above) has no child elements, I would like to have something like 'Copy Inner HTML' appear in the page contect menu. * Is there a way to do this, that I have not discovered yet? * Can this be done by modifying the browsers CSS? * Does this need an Add-on? * Does such an Add-on exist? TIA Doug

All Replies (1)

more options

Can you give an example of a page with unselectable text ?