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247

Why is text selection such a broken mess on so many websites? Why does this have to be such a hassle?? (lemmy.ca)

submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

52 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Using Chrome, Firefox, Brave, Samsungs 'Internet' app, and every other browser I've used/tried on Android:

I'll go to select some text on a page by long-pressing on it and it'll select the word I'm touching as well as expand that selection to a somewhat random amount of additional text (usually not following any structure such as selecting a whole sentence for example).

I'll then go to adjust that selection by grabbing one of the two tabs on either end of it and the moment I do, the opposite tab jumps to a completely random spot on the page vastly expanding the selection, then the whole page scrolls to an entirely different section; Leaving me holding one end of the selection unable to see what was originally selected. I can't scroll to where I was, and If I let go and just click copy I've now copied 90%of the page to my clipboard.... Attempting to modify the selection any further yields the same lack of control and just makes things worse.

This doesn't happen everywhere, but I get these results far far more often than a successful copy+paste. Like just now trying to copy an address from a local transit guide.

I end up having to drop the paste into a notepad app, reselect the bit I actually wanted (if it even made it into the pile of garbage I was forced to grab) then delete the note once I'm done.

This is fucking stupid and I hate it. Rant over. Thank you for listening.

/edit: I don't have the power to pin a comment, but [email protected] has a great solution: Use the rectangle select tool in androids 'Edge Panel' (must be enabled in settings), then press the 'T' button to copy text from the area you've selected.

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[+] [email protected] 28 points 1 year ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (4 children)

[deleted]

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

Sometimes it's intentional. I have seen both of these cases as well:

If you copy text, the page secretly adds more text at the end saying "To read more, visit " so when you paste the text, it shares the article too.
Some pages seem to interfere with selecting text on purpose. Like once again, they don't want you copying text, they want you to link the whole article.

Gotta get more impressions, right?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Most of those (ignoring 1) are browser problems, not mobile problems. The browser's handle it fine on desktops (most of the time)

I guess it's mostly the mobile size sites doing extreme styling to get thinfs to fit (partly 2). I guess next time I find a bad site I should try it on a shrunk desktop window.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

[This comment has been deleted by an automated system]

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

TBH my biggest frustration with it is the opposite side of the selection moving (sometimes quite drastically) while I'm trying to move one side:

Select text from point A to point B, grab point B to move it and point A suddenly moves while you're holding B.

Next up is the page moving while I'm holding one of those points. The page scrolls suddenly to a random spot, but I can't manually scroll at all let alone scroll back to where I was. (trying by dragged to the top/bottom of the screen, the page doesn't move)

These two together make text selection a complete lost cause wherever this problem shows up.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

You aren't exactly wrong, but nearly all of this (besides the precision point) somewhat applies on desktop as well. I think op has a point that what's happening on android is weird because most browsers don't flip out when you try and select text on desktop. I don't think the pointer method's lack of precision explains it fully.