I want to copy a section from a story to copy and paste in my review, but when I try to select text in the archive, it selects the whole page. How can I stop this from happening?

It is common when writing a review or replying to a review to want to copy and paste a passage, so this tendency is annoying, to say the least. However, it is not a problem with our site or something that we can easily overcome. The bug lies in Internet Explorer 6. In this version, on sites that use certain types of page positioning, it is difficult or impossible to select only a few lines without highlighting the entire page.

There is currently a new version of Internet Explorer available that does not have this problem. A free download of IE 7 is available here. However, we don't feel that members should have to change their preferred browser in order to use our site to its fullest capabilities. Therefore, for users who prefer IE 6, we can also offer the following work-around solutions that will allow you to select limited spans of text for copying and pasting.

To select smaller spans,

  1. Click the cursor at the start of the first word that you want to select.
  2. Hold down CTRL and SHIFT.
  3. While holding down these keys, use the right arrow key to select each word that you would like to copy.
  4. Use Edit --> Copy or CTRL + C to copy the text as you usually would.

To select larger sections,

  1. Select the entire page.
  2. Use Edit --> Copy or CTRL + C to copy the text as you usually would.
  3. Open a text editor, such as Notepad.
  4. Use Edit --> Paste or CTRL + V to paste the text as you usually would into the text editor.
  5. Find the passage that you wish to copy. You should be able to highlight and copy it normally in the text editor.
  6. Please be cautious, however, that you do not copy any extraneous HTML tags. Because you have essentially copied the entire page, then you may end up with some of the page's formatting code as well. How will you recognize this? HTML tags appear between triangle brackets (< >). They generally stand out well from text in plain English, so reading over what you intend to copy should be enough to spot them. Some tags you might see could be:
    • <div>
    • <p>
    • </em>
    Simply delete these tags from the text you wish to copy. Leaving them in may change the layout of what you are posting.

Participating in Internet groups can be challenging for new and experienced users alike. If you notice something on our site that seems wrong or have difficulty with any aspect of participating in the SWG, then we encourage you to contact us. We're happy to help!



Last updated 3 February 2008.

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