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Asked: 2026-05-23T23:58:23+00:00

My goal is to create a caret browsing extension in google chrome. I have

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My goal is to create a caret browsing extension in google chrome. I have hit a wall with text selection. I’ve found that I can select the contents of a div:

range = document.createRange();
referenceNode = document.getElementsByTagName("div").item(0);
range.selectNode(referenceNode);

I can also select child elements using range.setStart(referenceNode,offest) and range.setEnd(referenceNode,offset) where offset is the number of child nodes to skip/include in the selection.

Unfortunately, I have no idea how to select individual characters within a div. This behavior is, ofcourse, available for textareas and input textfields. I’m hoping for a legit javascript solution that I missed, but a hack-around suggestion using DOM manipulation of one form or another is also acceptable.

It is important that the solution allow for caret-browsing like behavior. For example, given the starting position as an offset from some location, and the ending position as an offset from the same location, display the selection in position on the screen and allow for copying the selection.

Thank you for your time.

Best Regards,
Lotus

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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    I don’t know if this is hack or not but it is working.
    (I just made that) Try demo: http://derek1906.site50.net/experiment/selection/

    You can put a <span></span> around the individual characters that you want to select and then you just select the <span> and Wa-la, you selected the words you want!

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