I know this question have been already asked (here), but all the answers I've found dealt with css selector :selection (that is not yet too widely supported by browsers).
So, how can I disable text selection on my html page via jQuery, not relying on css tricks?
Here is a simple one-liner to disable selecting text on your whole page. (whether you should or not is another question)
$(document).bind('selectstart dragstart', function(e) {
e.preventDefault();
return false;
});
If you want to avoid plugins, you can extract the relevant parts from the jQuery UI source:
/*!
* jQuery UI 1.8.16
*
* Copyright 2011, AUTHORS.txt (http://jqueryui.com/about)
* Dual licensed under the MIT or GPL Version 2 licenses.
* http://jquery.org/license
*
* http://docs.jquery.com/UI
*/
$.support.selectstart = "onselectstart" in document.createElement("div");
$.fn.disableSelection = function() {
return this.bind( ( $.support.selectstart ? "selectstart" : "mousedown" ) +
".ui-disableSelection", function( event ) {
event.preventDefault();
});
};
$("#somediv").disableSelection();
Include jQuery UI and use $(element).disableSelection().
However, disabling text selection is very user-unfriendly unless used in a context where accidental selections are likely (e.g. Drag&Drop or buttons where users are likely to doubleclick to perform multiple changes faster (e.g. in spinners))
$.browser has been removed as of 1.9 so this will fail.