I'd like to put a button on a page. When clicking the button, the
table below it gets selected so the user can do Ctrl C to copy the
entire table without using the mouse to select the table which can be
big. How do I do it using javascript? I tried:

<INPUT TYPE=Button NAME='Select' SIZE='10' VALUE='SelctTable'
onClick="document.MyTable.select();">

<table name = MyTable border=1>
<tr><td>This is the table</td></tr>
</table>

I got error "document.MyTable is null or not an object".

Could anyone help please? Thanks in advance!

There is no 'name' attribute for the <table> tag in the HTML4.01 w3.org
standard. Use 'id' instead.

DOM Level 2 HTML only specifies select() for input and textareas.
Furthermore this won't do what you want it to do.

I have not seen any standard Javascript method of making selections.

   <URL:http://www.jibbering.com/faq/faq_notes/alt_dynwrite.html#getEl>

<script type="text/javascript">
var Utils = {
   NOT_SUPPORTED : {},

   DOM : {
     getElementWithId : function() {
       var func=function(){return Utils.NOT_SUPPORTED;}
       if(document.getElementById) {
         func=function(id){
           return document.getElementById(id);
         }
       } else if(document.all) {
         func=function(id) {
           return document.all[id];
         }
       }
       return (this.getElementWithId=func)();
     }
   },

   Ranges : {
     create : function() {
       var func=function(){return Utils.NOT_SUPPORTED};
       if(document.body && document.body.createTextRange) {
         func=function(){return document.body.createTextRange();}
       } else if(document.createRange) {
         func=function(){return document.createRange();}
       }
       return (this.create=func)();
     },
     selectNode : function(node, originalRng) {
       var func=function(){return Utils.NOT_SUPPORTED;};
       var rng=this.create(), method="";
       if(rng.moveToElementText) method="moveToElementText";
       else if(rng.selectNode) method="selectNode";
       if(method)
         func=function(node, rng){
           rng=rng||Utils.Ranges.create();
           rng[method](node);
           return rng;
         }
       return rng=null,(this.selectNode=func)(node, originalRng);
     }
   },

   Selection : {
     clear:function() {
       var func=function(){return Utils.NOT_SUPPORTED};
       if(typeof document.selection!="undefined") {
         func=function(){
           if(document.selection && document.selection.empty) {
             return (Utils.Selection.clear=function(){
               if(document.selection)
                 document.selection.empty();
             })();
           }
         }
       } else if(window.getSelection) {
         var sel=window.getSelection();
         if(sel.removeAllRanges) {
           func=function(){
             window.getSelection().removeAllRanges();
           }
         }
         sel=null;
       }
       return (this.clear=func)();
     },
     add : function(originalRng) {
       var func=function(){return Utils.NOT_SUPPORTED};
       var rng=Utils.Ranges.create();
       if(rng.select) {
         func=function(rng){rng.select();}
       } else if(window.getSelection) {
         var sel=window.getSelection();
         if(sel.addRange) {
           func=function(rng){window.getSelection().addRange(rng);}
         }
         sel=null;
       }
       return (this.add=func)(originalRng);
     }
   }

Thanks much for your reply. Too bad the "range" is only supported in
IE4. So I guess there is no way in IE5 to do "selecting" using
javascript.

To test it by yourself, create a blank HTML file, copy-paste the code
I've provided, and run the HTML page into your favorite browser. If the
command button is visible, then this means that the script is supported
(even though, from a technical point of view, I could have been a bit
more precise when deciding whether to write the button).

<snip>

(Well, you could also see that as a two-step-or-nothing init;-))

Look up moveToElementText. All you do is give it an object

reference to the table in the form of document.getElementById("tableID")

Could I ask one more thing? How could I on top of you code, add copy
command to copy the selection. Then open an word or excel, paste the
selection to a excel or work doc?

Thanks in advance!

Botao

There can be a big difference between Internet scripting and Intranet
scripting. When designing for the Web, you have to take into account
that the runtime environment cannot be known for sure (there are more
than 100 browsers available), and that the script will fail inevitably
on some user agents. You therefore need to use a very defensive coding
approach, so that the script works fine on supporting platforms, and
fails silently on others (concept of clean degradation) - the original
script was coded in this perspective, which added a complexity overhead
(all the more the ranges' models differ greatly between IE's and W3C's).

On the other hand, coding for an intranet enables simpler approaches and
extended functionalities, since:
- you know the user agent,
- you know that javascript is enabled,
- you know that the security settings are high enough to use external
components (namely for IE, ActiveX).

This can simplify things greatly; see below (script intended for IE5+
with high security settings).

<table id="foo">
   <tr><td>Java</td></tr>
   <tr><td>Pizza</td></tr>
   <tr><td>Nice</td></tr>
</table>

<form>
   <input type="button" value="=&gt; Excel/Word" onclick="bar('foo')">
</form>

<script type="text/javascript">
function bar(nodeId) {
   var node=document.getElementById(nodeId);
   var rng=document.body.createTextRange();
   var xl, wd;

   //first select
   rng.moveToElementText(node);
   rng.select();

   //then copy
   document.execCommand("copy");

   //transfer to Excel
   xl=new ActiveXObject("Excel.Application");
   xl.visible=true;
   with(xl.Workbooks.Add().Sheets(1)){
     Cells.NumberFormat="@";
     Paste();
     Cells.NumberFormat="general";
   }

   //transfer to Word
   wd=new ActiveXObject("Word.Application");
   wd.visible=true;
   wd.Documents.Add().Range().Paste();

Try this:

<table name="whatever" id="theTable">
Then go on with the rows, columns and content as you most likely have done.

In your JavaScript create a function, say:

function selectTable(){
        var myTable = document.getElementById("theTable");
        myTable.focus();

Chris