using Javascript, it is easy to programatically select the text inside a textarea or input text element. How about for
<span>The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog</span>
is it possible to use JavaScript to select the words "quick brown fox"? Or select the whole sentence?
in css you could create a .highlight class
.highlight{
background-color:yellow;
}
in javascript you could add the .highlight class to the elements you wish to highlight
<getSpanElement>.className='highlight';
this text is then highlighted, though it is not selected.
Highlight or select? I think you actually want to select not to highlight.
Highlight... yes! Set the proper CSS properties of the span element, for instance foreground and background color.
Edit: That is called selecting. Sorry, I don't know of any way to do it.
You will need some way to manipulate the span tag. Such as an id, but then in javascript I would edit some of the style properties. You could have a property for everything you want to highlight like what is shown below.
.HL {
background: #ffff99;
color: #000000;
}
If you do that then you will need to get a reference to the specific tag.
DocumentgetElementsByTagName("title")
Otherwise Document.getElementByID("ID") is good for unique ids.
Then using setAttribute(name, value) To change the class to the one given.
This is just a simple example but there are many ways to do this.
<span id="abc" class=""> Sample </span>
var temp = Document.getelementByID("abc");
temp.setAttribute('class', 'HL');
Courtesy of http://www.sitepoint.com/forums/showthread.php?t=459934
<script type="text/javascript">
function fnSelect(objId) {
fnDeSelect();
if (document.selection) {
var range = document.body.createTextRange();
range.moveToElementText(document.getElementById(objId));
range.select();
}
else if (window.getSelection) {
var range = document.createRange();
range.selectNode(document.getElementById(objId));
window.getSelection().addRange(range);
}
}
function fnDeSelect() {
if (document.selection) document.selection.empty();
else if (window.getSelection)
window.getSelection().removeAllRanges();
}
</script>
<body>
<div id="test1">
<p>jhsdgfhlsdlfkjsdklgjs</p>
<p>jhsdgfhlsdlfkjsdklgjs</p>
<p>jhsdgfhlsdlfkjsdklgjs</p>
</div>
<div id="test2">
<p>jhsdgfhlsdlfkjsdklgjs</p>
<p>jhsdgfhlsdlfkjsdklgjs</p>
<p>jhsdgfhlsdlfkjsdklgjs</p>
</div>
<a href="javascript:fnSelect('test1');">Select 1</a>
<a href="javascript:fnSelect('test2');">Select 2</a>
<a href="javascript:fnDeSelect();">DeSelect</a>
</body>