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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]

4 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] 2 points 10 months ago (1 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] 1 points 10 months ago (1 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

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

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

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

Phones are imprecise. There's a reason Google recommends 48x48 pixels[1] as a touch target. Text on a page is much smaller than that.
Web pages are funky. You can write text as <p>It's gonna be hot today!</p> but in Modern™ Reactive™ Web Frameworks, you'll end up with <div><div><p><span>It's gonna be</span><span>hot</span><span>today!</span></p></div></div>. Things get much worse when images get involved, or when (SVG) icons get inserted, or when panels start floating over each other, or when someone uses ::before or :;after to add units. Browsers try to make all of this flow like a single block of text, but it's not easy.
It's very difficult to detect if you intend to select a floating block to the left, or if you accidentally dragged the selection knob too far over. As far as the browser is concerned, both contain text, even if that text is probably hidden.
Articles get broken up with non-flowing blocks all the time, mostly because of ads.
Have you subscribed to our newsletter yet? Well, regardless, there's this floating block of HTML that's ready to strike as soon as you've scrolled more than 30% down. No, the browser doesn't know it's hidden, that would make it too easy to block!

My personal solution: drag the text up into view, then swipe up for the task switcher, then use the Google Lens style text selection that's built into the task switcher to select the text. It's using OCR rather than browser parsing and that's generally more reliable (though it makes mistakes with some fonts and is quite suboptimal for battery life).

[1]: the exact pixel count depends on the DPI of you phone, these are "CSS pixels"