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Asked: 2026-05-14T09:02:29+00:00

I would like to specify that firefox select a range. I can do this

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I would like to specify that firefox select a range. I can do this easily with IE, using range.select();. It appears that FFX expects a dom element instead. Am I mistaken, or is there a better way to go about this?

I start by getting the text selection, converting it to a range (I think?) and saving the text selection. This is where I’m getting the range from initially:

    // Before modifying selection, save it
    var userSelection,selectedText = '';
    if(window.getSelection){
        userSelection=window.getSelection();
    }
    else if(document.selection){
        userSelection=document.selection.createRange();
    }
    selectedText=userSelection;
    if(userSelection.text){
        selectedText=userSelection.text;        
    }
    if(/msie|MSIE/.test(navigator.userAgent) == false){
        selectedText=selectedText.toString();
    }
    origRange = userSelection;

I later change the selection (successfully). I do so by range in IE and by a dom ID in ffx. But after I do that, I want to set back the selection to the original selection.

This works like a charm in IE:

setTimeout(function(){
    origRange.select();
},1000);

I would like to do something like this in FFX:

var s = w.getSelection();
setTimeout(function(){
    s.removeAllRanges();
    s.addRange(origRange);
},1000);

Unfortunately, FFX has not been cooperative and this doesn’t work. Any ideas?

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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    The short answer is: IE and other browsers differ in their implementations of selecting text using JavaScript (IE has its proprietary methods). Have a look at Selecting text with JavaScript.

    Also, see setSelectionRange at MDC.

    EDIT: After making a little test case, the problem becomes clear.

    <!DOCTYPE html>
<html>   
  <head> 
    <meta charset="UTF-8">
    <title>addRange test</title>
    <style>
      #trigger { background: lightgreen }
    </style>
  </head>
  <body> 
    <p id="test">This is some (rather short) text.</p>
    <span id="trigger">Trigger testCase().</span>
    <script>
var origRange;

var reselectFunc = function () {
    var savedRange = origRange;
    savedRange.removeAllRanges();
    savedRange.addRange(origRange);
};

var testCase = function () {
    // Before modifying selection, save it
    var userSelection,selectedText = '';

    if(window.getSelection){
        userSelection=window.getSelection();
    }
    else if(document.selection){
        userSelection=document.selection.createRange();
    }
    selectedText=userSelection;
    if(userSelection.text){
        selectedText=userSelection.text;
    }
    if(/msie|MSIE/.test(navigator.userAgent) === false){
        /* you shouldn't do this kind of browser sniffing,
           users of Opera and WebKit based browsers
           can easily spoof the UA string */
        selectedText=selectedText.toString();
    }
    origRange = userSelection;

    window.setTimeout(reselectFunc, 1000);
};

window.onload = function () {
    var el = document.getElementById("trigger");
    el.onmouseover = testCase;
};
    </script>
  </body>
</html>

    When testing this in Firefox, Chromium and Opera, the debugging tools show that after invoking removeAllRanges in reselectFunc, both savedRange and origRange are reset. Invoking addRange with such an object causes an exception to be thrown in Firefox:

    uncaught exception: [Exception…
    “Could not convert JavaScript argument
    arg 0 [nsISelection.addRange]”
    nsresult: “0x80570009
    (NS_ERROR_XPC_BAD_CONVERT_JS)”
    location: “JS frame ::
    file:///home/mk/tests/addrange.html ::
    anonymous :: line 19” data: no]

    No need to say that in all three browsers no text is selected.

    Apparently this in intended behaviour. All variables assigned a (DOM)Selection object are reset after calling removeAllRanges.

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