I occasionally find webpages from which I cann't highlight and copy.

Is this problem spreading?

If I can't highlight in FF, might another browser succeed?

On 10/1/2023 5:10 PM, micky wrote:
> I occasionally find webpages from which I cann't highlight and copy.
>
> Is this problem spreading?
>
> If I can't highlight in FF, might another browser succeed?
>

When I find this in SeaMonkey, I disable JavaScript. That usually
allows me to mark and copy.

--
David E. Ross
<http://www.rosde.com/>

X (previously known as Twitter) is the place where truth goes to die.

micky <NONONOmisc07@fmguy.com> wrote:

> I occasionally find webpages from which I cann't highlight and copy.
>
> Is this problem spreading?
>
> If I can't highlight in FF, might another browser succeed?

A web author doesn't want visitors stealing his content. Despite
copyright laws that permit some usage of content by others, there is no
law that forces authors to allow ease of theft.

You could disable Javascript since the mouse events are what get blocked
to select the text. However, loss of Javascript can result in a site
blocking some of their content, or not delivering any of it. They can
detect when you visit with a Javascript-disabled client.

You could use Dev Tools in Firefox, Chrome, etc, or view the source code
of a web page, which shows you the code, including the text objects, and
copy from there.

CSS is used to define styles in web content, and it can disable text
selection using the property.user-select attribute. You can use the
inspect window in a web browser to locate this property on the CSS, and
untick it to deselect it.

Nothing prevents you from taking a screenshot of the web page. Then
copy the clipboard using whatever editor you like into your doc. Some
clip managers let you select a region of a document that gets captured
to the clipboard. Also, not all what looks like text in a web page is
actually text. It could be an image that looks like text.

Do you have a print-to-PDF "printer" installed? This has you "print" a
web page, or any Print function in any program, whereupon you pick the
print-to-PDF emulated printer to output the content to a .pdf file.
Then copy from the PDF file.

Since you didn't give a specific example (your modus operandi), no one
can tell you how to specifically reenable text copying from an
unidentified web page.

micky wrote:
> I occasionally find webpages from which I cann't highlight and copy.
>
> Is this problem spreading?

Oh please, don't mention any examples for this.

On Sun, 1 Oct 2023 19:47:36 -0500, VanguardLH wrote:
> Do you have a print-to-PDF "printer" installed?
>

Such as CutePDF, which I've used for years.

--
Stan Brown, Tehachapi, California, USA
https://BrownMath.com/
Shikata ga nai...

On 10/1/2023 5:39 PM, David E. Ross wrote:
> On 10/1/2023 5:10 PM, micky wrote:
>> I occasionally find webpages from which I cann't highlight and copy.
>>
>> Is this problem spreading?
>>
>> If I can't highlight in FF, might another browser succeed?
>>
>
> When I find this in SeaMonkey, I disable JavaScript. That usually
> allows me to mark and copy.
>

I meant to indicate that first you should load the affected Web page
with JavaScript ENABLED. Then disable JavaScript to mark and copy.
That means the page's Web server knows you indeed have JavaScript when
the page displays, but the use of JavaScript to block copying is
ineffective.

--
David E. Ross
<http://www.rosde.com/>

X (previously known as Twitter) is the place where truth goes to die.

David E. Ross wrote:

> you should load the affected Web page with JavaScript ENABLED. Then
> disable JavaScript to mark and copy.

Some javascript management add-ons force a reload when
enabling/disabling javascript, you may need to disable the reload.

On 10/1/23 19:39, David E. Ross wrote:
> When I find this in SeaMonkey, I disable JavaScript. That usually
> allows me to mark and copy.

Great idea, but how do you disable JS after loading? Is that a SeaMonkey
specific feature?

rdh wrote:

> how do you disable JS after loading?

add-ons, e.g.

<https://addons.mozilla.org/en-GB/firefox/addon/javascript-toggler>

n.b. by default it reloads the page after toggling, so you might want to
disable the auto-reload setting

"rdh" <rdh@tilde.institute> wrote

|
| Great idea, but how do you disable JS after loading? Is that a SeaMonkey
| specific feature?
|

You can use an extension, like NoScript. There are also
extensions to add a toolbar button. I'm not sure what's available
for current Mozilla browsers, but in older firefox and New Moon
I use a toggle button for CSS and there are similar buttons for
JS.

I don't normally allow any JS and only allow it on a per-domain
basis as necessary. That usually works OK for things like news.
If you visit things like department store websites they may be
trying to run script from 10 different domains and won't allow the
webpage to work properly unless you allow all of it.

I sometimes have trouble that's coming from CSS, so then I
just toggle CSS off. Often the webpage will be ugly, but at
least it works, and it's in my preferred 13 pixel verdana instead
of triple-spaced, 24 pixel Times New Roman intended to be
viewed on a cellphone screen.

There are various tricks that can be done with CSS. Sometimes
a site will cover the whole webpage with a white DIV that's only
removed by script, so it's a passive way to force script. I imagine
that copying might also be blocked by doing things like covering
the page with a transparent DIV. So then you see the page, but
what the mouse registers is an empty field. However, there are
no shennanigans possible with actual HTML. So if it's really a
webpage and not just a javascript program that loads a webpage
then you can always get the straight page by disabling JS and CSS.

On 10/5/23 00:58, Andy Burns wrote:
> rdh wrote:
>
>> how do you disable JS after loading?
>
> add-ons, e.g.
>
> <https://addons.mozilla.org/en-GB/firefox/addon/javascript-toggler>
>
> n.b. by default it reloads the page after toggling, so you might want to
> disable the auto-reload setting

Ah, I was hoping it was a feature built into Firefox/SeaMonkey.

rdh wrote:

>> rdh wrote:
>
>> how do you disable JS after loading?
>
> I was hoping it was a feature built into Firefox/SeaMonkey.

I used to be ... but then it was hidden from settings page so it didn't
confuse users

On 10/4/2023 10:36 PM, rdh wrote:
> On 10/1/23 19:39, David E. Ross wrote:
>> When I find this in SeaMonkey, I disable JavaScript. That usually
>> allows me to mark and copy.
>
> Great idea, but how do you disable JS after loading? Is that a SeaMonkey
> specific feature?
>

I use SeaMonkey 2.53.16, which still supports .xpi extensions. I rely
on PrefBar, in which I have two JavaScript checkboxes. One (an
extcheck) disables JavaScript only locally for the current Web page.
The other (a check) disables JavaScript globally. Neither cause a reload.

While the local disable indeed stops JavaScript in an already loaded
page, I think the global disable only affects pages while they are
loading.

There is much JavaScript that is very annoying. I use the checkboxes
frequently.

--
David E. Ross
<http://www.rosde.com/>

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In alt.comp.software.firefox, on Sun, 1 Oct 2023 19:47:36 -0500,
VanguardLH <V@nguard.LH> wrote:

>micky <NONONOmisc07@fmguy.com> wrote:
>
>> I occasionally find webpages from which I cann't highlight and copy.
>>
>> Is this problem spreading?
>>
>> If I can't highlight in FF, might another browser succeed?
>
>A web author doesn't want visitors stealing his content. Despite
>copyright laws that permit some usage of content by others, there is no
>law that forces authors to allow ease of theft.
>
>You could disable Javascript since the mouse events are what get blocked
>to select the text. However, loss of Javascript can result in a site
>blocking some of their content, or not delivering any of it. They can
>detect when you visit with a Javascript-disabled client.
>
>You could use Dev Tools in Firefox, Chrome, etc, or view the source code
>of a web page, which shows you the code, including the text objects, and
>copy from there.
>
>CSS is used to define styles in web content, and it can disable text
>selection using the property.user-select attribute. You can use the
>inspect window in a web browser to locate this property on the CSS, and
>untick it to deselect it.
>
>Nothing prevents you from taking a screenshot of the web page. Then
>copy the clipboard using whatever editor you like into your doc. Some
>clip managers let you select a region of a document that gets captured
>to the clipboard. Also, not all what looks like text in a web page is
>actually text. It could be an image that looks like text.
>
>Do you have a print-to-PDF "printer" installed? This has you "print" a
>web page, or any Print function in any program, whereupon you pick the
>print-to-PDF emulated printer to output the content to a .pdf file.
>Then copy from the PDF file.
>
>Since you didn't give a specific example (your modus operandi), no one
>can tell you how to specifically reenable text copying from an
>unidentified web page.