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Access Selected Text Using TextRange.text

Question:

If I use my mouse to highlight some text (it may not be in the nor in the

) displayed in the browser, and then click on any button or link, can JavaScript take care of the text just like “submit” does? For example, take the text as a parameter to run a CGI file?

Answer:

You can get the text selected by a user in Internet Explorer, but not Netscape. IE exposes the document.selection object that contains properties and methods that work with the user’s selection. One of the methods of the document.selection object is createTextRange(). This returns the textRange object that corresponds to the current selection. Once you’ve got the selection’s textRange, you can get the text (or HTML) that the selection covers using the textRange.text property.

From there, submitting the text you’ve got through a form is a well-known process. To make this happen, assign the text to a TYPE=HIDDEN form element on the form and then submit the form through JavaScript using the form.submit() method.

This is a test. This is only a test.

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