What do you want to learn today?
Treehouse is the best place to learn web design, web development, and iOS.

Code Snippet

Home » Code Snippets » JavaScript » Auto Select Textarea Text

Auto Select Textarea Text

<textarea rows="10" cols="50" onclick="this.focus();this.select()" readonly="readonly">
   example text
</textarea>

Subscribe to The Thread

  1. Jack

    So much easier then with jQuery. Just goes to show, a quick search can save you a lot of time, and KB on the finished site. Thanks Chris!

    Reply ↓
  2. febriyanto

    thx a lot!!! its really helpfull, another trick is sucks!!!

    Reply ↓
  3. Dhaval

    nice one
    for designer its a very easy with help

    Reply ↓
  4. Peyman

    سازمان غیر دولتی موسسه پروفسور حسابی دارای مجوز رسمی از سازمان ملی جوانان بوده و در محدوده فعالیت ملی و با محوریت علمی و پژوهشی مشغول به کار می باشد.

    Reply ↓
  5. emilights

    WORKS !!!!

    Reply ↓
  6. vijay

    surf http://www.rapidmaza.com for sending free sms 400 character and for free sms api

    Reply ↓
  7. Gye

    thanks… its work! ^^

    Reply ↓
  8. John

    Great and Works! Thank you.

    Reply ↓
  9. Stef

    Just what I was looking for… thanks!

    Do you also have the code to make it automatically copy to the clipboard? That would make my life complete lol.

    cheers

    Stef

    Reply ↓
  10. Michael C. Harris

    This doesn’t work in iOS devices. I’ve seen mention of setSelectionRange() working there, but I can’t get that to work in iOS: http://jsfiddle.net/zBa5n/2/

    Does anyone know how to do this?

    Reply ↓
  11. Sherton

    Works for me. Thanks!

    Reply ↓
  12. Tim

    @Stef: I looked for what you asked about as well and found this article: http://brooknovak.wordpress.com/2009/07/28/accessing-the-system-clipboard-with-javascript/

    In the end, I went with instructions to CTRL+C/CTRL+P as accessing the clipboard ended up sounding like a bit of a nightmare. If it’s good enough for YouTube, it’s good enough for me.

    Reply ↓
  13. feddiriko

    This one is on mouseover:

    *textarea cols=”35″ rows=”3″ onmouseover=”this.focus()” onfocus=”this.select()”>
    TEXT HERE
    */textarea>

    Reply ↓

Speak, my friend

At this moment, you have an awesome opportunity* to be the person your mother always wanted you to be: kind, helpful, and smart. Do that, and we'll give you a big ol' gold star for the day (literally).

Posting tips:
  • You can use basic HTML
  • When posting code, please turn all
    < characters into &lt;
  • If the code is multi-line, use
    <pre><code></code></pre>
Thank you,
~ The Management ~