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Answer 1

A:

This is a feature of Operating System. The OS provided textbox does auto-selection for better user experience. You do not have any control over here. (I just confirmed on IE/Windows7)

Ankit Jain 2010-07-27 20:31:06

this would be the browser providing the auto-selection, not the OS. You have some control over it, varying between browsers, but not the way of selecting text, as far as I know.

Jasper 2010-07-27 20:37:34

Well that's just depressing. Now I have to go all out to get a better text selection method. Thank you for your help.

lighthazard 2010-07-27 20:38:19

@Ankit: I, for one, don't find this behavior to constitute a "better" user experience.

Robusto 2010-07-27 20:38:51

@Robusto - it helps in quickly selecting text. If your last word selection is partial word only, just move the pointer back and forth again and now the last word is partially selected based on your pointer location.

Ankit Jain 2010-07-27 20:57:50

@Ankit But it also decides to highlight the partial word before the space as well. To solve that issue, one has to deselect it and start over, from right to left.

lighthazard 2010-07-27 21:04:23

@Ankit: I still don't see how that's easier than letting you select what you want in the first place. A workaround is not preferable to something that just works right the first time. YMMV, but I find this behavior very annoying.

Robusto 2010-07-27 21:16:18

Answer 2

A:

This is a feature of IE specifically; no other browser has this behaviour. It's a deliberate “smart selection”(*) feature copied from Office, though in newer versions of Office it works less annoyingly, allowing you to revert to character selection if you move the pointer back.

There is as far as I know no way to turn it off in IE, either at the client or server end, because Microsoft think it's such a great feature. Sigh. Even JavaScript hacks don't provide a way round.

About all you could do would be to put invisible spaces between each character, so that IE thought each character was a second word. eg. try selecting:

foo bar bof zot

these have Unicode U+200B ZERO WIDTH SPACE characters between letters. This has side effects though; if the user tries to edit or copy-and-paste the text, they'll get weird invisible characters in the way potentially messing it up.

(*: As usual, “smart” means second-guessing the user, usually getting it wrong, and insisting it's right. aka. “stupid”. Run a mile from anything describing itself as smart.)

bobince 2010-07-27 21:18:38

I was thinking of using this method, since the user only needs to see a visual representation. Then I realized I cannot easily modify selection background color, and etc, so it might be easier to just make my own custom script for it.

lighthazard 2010-07-28 12:52:15

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Input box precise text selection

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