Stopping mouse selecting text

RelaxoRy · Jul 30, 2003

Is there any way to stop someone getting their mouse and selecting
text on a page (without making the text an image of course). Is it
possible to trap and stop click-and-drag functionality from the mouse?

Bit of a stranger request but can it be done?

Cheers
Ryan

Vjekoslav Begovic · Jul 30, 2003

Something like this:

<script type="text/javascript">
mClicked=false
</script>

<body onmousedown="mClicked=true" onmuseup="mClicked=false" onmousemove="if
(mClicked) alert('Disabled'); mClicked=false">

Richard Cornford · Jul 30, 2003

RelaxoRy said:
Is there any way to stop someone getting their mouse and
selecting text on a page (without making the text an image
of course). Is it possible to trap and stop click-and-drag
functionality from the mouse?

Bit of a stranger request but can it be done?

Yes and No. IE browsers have events like onselectstart and ondragstart
that can be cancelled, effectively inhibiting the selection of content.
Opera, on the other hand, has no mechanism for doing anything of the
sort.

You will have to explain why you want to prevent text selection because
you are probably attempting to solve the wrong problem and explaining
what the real problem is would enable people to suggest ways of solving
it.

Richard.

David Dorward · Jul 30, 2003

Something like this:

<snip> JS </script>

Of course, if the objective is to stop people copy/pasting the content, its
a fruitless endeavour. There is nothing to stop people from viewing the
source or turning JS off.

http://david.us-lot.org/www/hide/

Lasse Reichstein Nielsen · Jul 30, 2003

Is there any way to stop someone getting their mouse and selecting
text on a page (without making the text an image of course). Is it
possible to trap and stop click-and-drag functionality from the mouse?

Generally, no.

Some browsers has event handlers like "ondragstart" which can be
canceled. Others don't. In all cases, turning off Javascript will
stop that attempt.

Bit of a stranger request but can it be done?

IN some situations, yes. In general, no.
In general, you shouldn't want to interfere with the users' way
of using a browser.

/L

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Stopping mouse selecting text

RelaxoRy

Vjekoslav Begovic

Richard Cornford

David Dorward

Lasse Reichstein Nielsen

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