this post was submitted on 30 Aug 2023

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238

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

submitted 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

56 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] 90 points 10 months ago (2 children)

All I can say is that it is kinda cathartic that someone other than me is experiencing this nightmare.

Also, this pages where it is impossible to select any text at all.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 10 months ago (2 children)

Also, this pages where it is impossible to select any text at all.

On android, you can still select text on those pages from the switch apps screen (swipe up from the bottom, hold, then release on Pixels). Found that workaround on accident lol

[–] jennwiththesea 7 points 10 months ago

Whoa, thank you! I can't select text in the Liftoff app, but this one weird trick works.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 10 months ago

That seems to be OCR based though. Sometimes when I do it like that I get complete gibberish

[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 months ago

Seriously, I thought I was the only person clumsy/stupid enough to mess up on text selection.

[+] [email protected] 28 points 10 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (4 children)

[deleted]

[–] aaaa 4 points 10 months 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 10 months 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 10 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months 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 10 months 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.

[–] [email protected] 25 points 10 months ago (4 children)

I think it’s a pixel thing, but I get around this by going into the app background thing then press “select” so the phone can treat the screen as an image with text and just list out the text without any website or browser shenanigans interfering.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Samsung had something similar.

[–] d3Xt3r 13 points 10 months ago (3 children)

Yep, just use the rectangular selection from the edge panel and you can save it as a screenshot or extract the text.

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago

This is an awesome tip!

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[–] [email protected] 15 points 10 months ago

I really hate that android tries to expand the selection to whatever it thinks is relevant, I don't need selection to be "smart" just let me select what I want to select

[–] [email protected] 14 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (2 children)

So it's not just my phone? It is android? I've had this shit only on my current phone so I thought it was just the hardware. It's not just websites or browsers; it's every fucking app, because the selection thing is handled by the OS.

By God is it infuriating that something so simple straight up doesn't fucking work in 2023.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 10 months ago (2 children)

I've had this issue for years across several devices.

I have however mostly used Samsung devices so I'm not sure if other brands have the same issue. Probably, but I can't say for sure.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

I've had this LG thing (V6 Dual Screen) for years; I don't upgrade until my stuff is literally broken. Previous phone was a Galaxy S4. I didn't have the problem when it was new, which is why I figured it was hardware just wearing out. But it could have also just been one of the updates to Android itself.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago (1 children)

My last two upgrades have been because of dieing parts. Degrading batteries that I can't be bothered to have replaced and a wifi adapter that just quit working altogether.

I miss my Moto Z2 Play with the moto mods. Extra battery, external speakers, even a fully functional projector to share the screen. That thing was the shit.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

Fuck yeah. I hella wanted that thing. It sounded neat and the projector has always since made me question why that isn't a standard thing on every phone the way the camera is? It would be awesome.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

Space. The projector just about tripled the thickness of the phone. It was really handy being removable.

I wish more manufacturers tried out the swappable add-on concept. There was lots of potential there.

I really really miss that extra battery letting my phone go 3 full days under heavy use without a charge.

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

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[–] [email protected] 10 points 10 months ago

Because websites are optimized for dummies who can't copy paste.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 10 months ago

Yean, I hate it too. The difference to selecting text on a desktop system is night and day especially because with a proper mouse you can shift click the desired start and end points and don't even have to drag.

I've found that zooming in generally makes it more precise but that doesn't help if it means that you now need to scroll the screen because of the zoom. For some reason drag-selecting text upwards also yields better results for me than downwards.

Another trick is to request the desktop version of a page instead of the mobile version and see if it's easier there.

[–] someguy3 6 points 10 months ago

I'm glad it's not just me that finds this.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 10 months ago

At this point I just let Android copy whatever, as long as it contains what I want, and then I use the clipboard edit tool that pops up to delete everything I don't want. Extra steps, but way less fiddly.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 10 months ago (1 children)

It happens to me in a lot of apps too, even Liftoff. Is it maybe related to the keyboard app? Which one do you use?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (2 children)

Interesting thought: I've been using SwiftKey for probably 10 years now.

I'm gonna have a play with some others and see if that changes anything. Not sure it will, but worth a look.

/edit: Sigh. Nope. Same results with Samsungs built in keyboard and with GBoard.

The keyboard doesn't pop up during text selection so I don't think that's having an effect.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago

I thought maybe it was related by way of the clipboard. Guess not.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago

I used AOSP keyboard for a very long time and now Simple Keyboard, it experience this on both. I think this may be an Android thing.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

This, and also putting the cursor into a wall of text, such as between two closed parentheses () in the middle of a block of text. It's always off by 1-4 characters. I KNOW it's fixable because WindowsPhone fixed this in the 2015 era with a six-way keyboard nipple embedded in it's keyboard. It never messed up. I miss it everyday....

[–] op12 1 points 10 months ago (2 children)

One thing that might be Pixel-specific is it lets you adjust the selection after the initial copy, prior to pasting it elsewhere. One thing that may be more universal (maybe?) is copying from the recent apps screen (the one that shows when you swipe up partway and see all open apps) uses OCR so you can copy from anything, including apps that have normally blocked that functionality.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

It's the other way round: adjusting is pretty universal, copying from recent apps screen is more specific.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Copying from recent apps is Pixel specific, if I remember right?

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

I have neither option with Samsungs A52.

Could probably screenshot and grab text from the image, but that sounds like even more work than the notepad app method I mentioned.

[–] d3Xt3r 1 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

You can just use the rectangular selection tool from the edge panel, and press the 'T' icon to extract the text. No need to save it as a screenshot.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Which selection are you talking about?

Tried screenshoting, but the only options there are to tag the image and to edit it (crop, draw, etc), there are no text extraction options.

[–] d3Xt3r 2 points 10 months ago (1 children)

It's not in the recents. You need to enable the Edge Panel from the settings first. Then when you're in your app, slide out the edge panel and select the rectangle tool.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago

You need to enable the Edge Panel from the settings first.

Ah, a rather crucial step. I'd never even heard of the edge panel before, was going off the previous guys response for where to look.

Thank you, that actually works great. It'll be a small issue if whatever I'm copying doesn't all fit on screen, but I can work around that much easier than selecting being entirely broken.

This'll make cropping screenshots faster too.

Cheers!

[–] thesprongler 1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

These used to work so well, and I'm guessing a recent random bug fix broke it.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 months ago

I've had this problem for multiple years across several devices. If anything it's gotten worse.

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