Copying Text: Occasionally, I want to copy a block of online text, but I can't select it. This morning, I wanted to copy a post on a local bulletin board about a local store that has...

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

Occasionally, I want to copy a block of online text, but I can't select it. This morning, I wanted to copy a post on a local bulletin board about a local store that has good products at good prices. I can't highlight the text. So, two questions: How do they prevent users from copying the text, and why would they do that for a local bulletin board? I realize the first question will involve web site construction, so you can ignore that one.

cedymock Loc: Irmo, South Carolina

Is the text within a photo? Scanning a document for a publication may cause this.

Manglesphoto Loc: 70 miles south of St.Louis

jerryc41 wrote:

Occasionally, I want to copy a block of online text, but I can't select it. This morning, I wanted to copy a post on a local bulletin board about a local store that has good products at good prices. I can't highlight the text. So, two questions: How do they prevent users from copying the text, and why would they do that for a local bulletin board? I realize the first question will involve web site construction, so you can ignore that one.

do a screen shot, you can do the whole seen or select a portion
Mac entire screen : Shift+command+4
Select a section: shift+command+3

DirtFarmer Loc: Escaped from the NYC area, back to MA

Screenshot
OCR

BigDaddy Loc: Pittsburgh, PA

cedymock wrote:

Is the text within a photo? Scanning a document for a publication may cause this.

Yes, you can't highlight and copy text from a photo, even if it looks like text. You can however copy anything on your screen with a snipper tool. Windows comes with one called of all things, the snipping tool. Pressing the windows key, Shift and S at the same time opens it and you can select whatever you want to copy to the buffer for pasting later. There are other tools like Greenshot that also do this with more options. Usually if it's a photo you can just save the photo. Some web pages disable saving a photo, but they can't stop anyone from copying what is on their display. Same with music. A web page may not let you save a music file, but if you can play it on your speakers, you can record it with an audio recorder such as Audacity.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

cedymock wrote:

Is the text within a photo? Scanning a document for a publication may cause this.

No

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

Manglesphoto wrote:

do a screen shot, you can do the whole seen or select a portion
Mac entire screen : Shift+command+4
Select a section: shift+command+3

I realize that, but it wasn't that important. I just wanted to copy the text to send to a friend. I sent the URL for the website, instead. Looking back, I see I have been able to copy other text from that neighborhood forum.

Martys Loc: Lubec, Maine

When that happens to me,....I right click it and save it as a jpg for viewing that way.

Busbum Loc: 85367

Jerry,
There are a lot of sites that do not let you copy and paste what they have on their sites, this way if there is any copyright material, they won't allow it to be copied, I run into this alot...
HTH

OnDSnap Loc: NE New Jersey

Busbum wrote:

Jerry,
There are a lot of sites that do not let you copy and paste what they have on their sites, this way if there is any copyright material, they won't allow it to be copied, I run into this alot...
HTH

Thank goodness for Snagit...

Bridges Loc: Memphis, Charleston SC, now Nazareth PA

Jerry, sometimes when I try to copy text it picks up and wants to move instead. If you begin highlighting at the bottom of the page you can work the high light up to the top and this will allow you to copy. I don’t know why this works, but it does.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

Bridges wrote:

Jerry, sometimes when I try to copy text it picks up and wants to move instead. If you begin highlighting at the bottom of the page you can work the high light up to the top and this will allow you to copy. I don’t know why this works, but it does.

Yes, I've discovered that. Strange. What's odd with this neighborhood page is that I can usually copy the text. This was nothing commercial, just a post done by a local person.

Bill_de Loc: US

BigDaddy wrote:

Yes, you can't highlight and copy text from a phot... (show quote)

I've used the 'Print Screen' (PrtScr) key for years. I never knew about the snipping tool. Works great ... THANKS!

---

BigDaddy Loc: Pittsburgh, PA

Bill_de wrote:

I've used the 'Print Screen' (PrtScr) key for years. I never knew about the snipping tool. Works great ... THANKS!
---

I didn't know windows came with one until recently. I always used Greenshot.exe, a free snipper that has a lot more functions and is really nice. Problem is windows keeps shutting it down so the hot key doesn't work and you have to re-load it every few days. Windows does the same thing to me with FastStone. I set it as my default viewer and windows keeps changing it to something else, randomly. Windows is easy to hate...

FL Streetrodder

Jerry, if you're using Windows look in Accessories and choose the Snipping Tool. It will allow you to copy any portion of a page and save it with a name of your choice. I use this all the time!