Copy doesn't always work
Rich Pasco
On most web pages, I can highlight some text and either hit Ctrl-C
or right-click and choose "Copy" to copy the highlighted text to the
Windows clipboard.
But on a few web sites, I can still highlight the text, but Ctrl-C
does not change the clipboard, and "Copy" is grayed out on the
right-click menu.
Disabling JavaScript does nothing to change this.
I can copy the text by invoking View / Page Source and highlighting
and copying it from there.
Can anyone explain what's going on -- what special codes might be
in the web page to disable Copy the usual way? Is it a CSS thing?
- Rich
David McRitchie
> I'm using Firefox 2.0.0.12 under Windows 2000.
>
> On most web pages, I can highlight some text and either hit Ctrl-C
> or right-click and choose "Copy" to copy the highlighted text to the
> Windows clipboard.
>
> But on a few web sites, I can still highlight the text, but Ctrl-C
> does not change the clipboard, and "Copy" is grayed out on the
> right-click menu.
>
> Disabling JavaScript does nothing to change this.
> I can copy the text by invoking View / Page Source
Hi Rich,
It's kind of hard to distinguish if a problem is Copy (Ctrl+C) or
Paste (Ctrl+V). So here are some things that can cause problems
and not necessarily just Firefox.
1) A Start Search window is open in Windows (I used to have Windows 2000)
2) A Search window is open in Outlook Express
Sometimes you can use the menus of an application to do such things
but you've already said those are grayed out and so that probably
indicates that the site did it on purpose with CSS like you asked.
Did you try turning off Style and I see you did try turning off JavaScript to test.
The fact that you can view the source is was important to note.
You can toggle style on or off with View, Style, No Style and there is
a nice extension "Read Easily" that toggles from a button for you.
https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/1224
also can use Web Developer (Ctrl+Shift+S)
https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/60
or bookmarklets.
http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/ie/bookmarklets.htm
https://www.squarefree.com/bookmarklets/
Enable Context Menu (very short, see next two bookmarklets)
javascript:void(document.oncontextmenu=null)
Restore Context Menu, Restore Selecting
https://www.squarefree.com/bookmarklets/zap.html
I have noticed recently in Firefox, with machine under heavy use
by antivirus program (AVG) that I get better results by using
Ctrl+C three times of same selection instead of just once
before pasting.
AllowClipboard Helper :: Firefox Add-ons
"Manages security policies in user.js file with a convenient user interface.
More info: http://kb.mozillazine.org/Granting_JavaScript_access_to_the_clipboard"
and in http://help.websanity.com/troubleshooting/cutcopypasteinfirefox.htm
https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/852
These may be of interest, for some users
Enable Firefox paste functionality
"For security reasons Firefox limits the permission to paste content using javascript, but you can configure the program to grant
that permission in a domain basis."
http://aldo.argotvisual.net/firefox_config.html
Enabling Copy-Paste for Google Office in Firefox
http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/2006/10/enabling-copy-paste-for-google-office.html
Unlikely to make a difference, but at some point if none of the above
work you might try Safe Mode to make sure that an extension or theme was
not involved.
Please try the above things, see if you can find your solution
and tell us the problem url and what worked. or if nothing worked at
least tell us the problem url.
--
HTH,
David McRitchie,
Firefox Custom: http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/firefox/firefox.htm
Aggro
> I'm using Firefox 2.0.0.12 under Windows 2000.
>
> On most web pages, I can highlight some text and either hit Ctrl-C
> or right-click and choose "Copy" to copy the highlighted text to the
> Windows clipboard.
>
> But on a few web sites, I can still highlight the text, but Ctrl-C
> does not change the clipboard, and "Copy" is grayed out on the
> right-click menu.
Url?
--
Solutions for issues with Firefox:
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Category:Issues_%28Firefox%29