I send the highlighted text to the Text to Speech program to avoid eye fatigue. The engine forbids this and the selection disappears. Could you please tell me why and how to fix it?
AI-generated summary
Users are reporting that Ctrl+A does not select all text in a Discourse topic, only the original post (OP), and that mouse selection across multiple posts also fails. artenaki initially mentioned using text-to-speech tools but clarified the issue is purely about text selection. HAWK confirmed the behavior, noting Ctrl+A only selects the OP. artenaki shared a uBlock rule workaround that restores Ctrl+A but breaks quoting. denvergeeks suggested holding the mouse button while using Ctrl+A/Ctrl+C as a temporary fix. artenaki called for restoring standard browser selection behavior, questioning its ethics — to which HAWK responded it’s likely unintentional and not unethical. vvo argued that breaking default browser behavior is suboptimal and should be optional, especially since advanced users can select the OP via mouse or copy buttons. sam linked the issue to a prior change related to triple-click selection and confirmed it’s a side effect. He noted the issue doesn’t occur in Firefox (though it’s sluggish), and advised users to use Ctrl+P to access the print view, where Ctrl+A works correctly. sam expressed concern that restoring the old behavior in Chrome might break triple-click functionality.
Could you provide further information please? What do you mean by the engine, how are you sending the text and to what text to speech tool?
Speech has nothing to do with it in this case. Ctrl+A does not work in Discourse forums.
Great, that’s the information that we need in order to help.
Ctrl+A only selects the OP rather than the replies as well.
On the ntc.party forum I found a rule for uBlock. It brings back the Ctrl+A work, but breaks the quoting.
ntc.party##+js(aopr, getSelection)
That is, you are prohibiting the text of multiple posts from being selected.
Not only Ctrl+A. Selecting the text of multiple messages with the mouse does not work. The selection disappears and I can’t copy the text (to send it to the TTS engine, but in this case it doesn’t matter what I want to do with the copied text).
Hold the mouse button down (anywhere on the page) while you select all (Ctrl+A) and then copy (Ctrl+C).
OR
After selecting everything you want with the mouse, try Ctrl+A and Ctrl+C before you release the mouse button.
Yes, these solutions can be used, but it’s not very convenient. I suggest you make changes to the Discourse engine to make selection and copying work in a common way.
Why do you forbid selecting text (by default) in the browser? Is it ethical?
It’s likely not deliberate but there’s certainly nothing unethical about it.
Is there any context as for why it was decided that CMD/CTRL+A would select only the original post? Breaking the default behavior of most apps here seems maybe not unethical but also probably not the correct default and it should be an option instead.
Using keyboard shortcut is probably considered a “advanced usage”, people willing to select only the OP content can do it with a mouse or a copy button next to the post.
Thanks.
Perhaps this was related to this change?
Oh confirmed @saquetim this is a side effect to be aware of.
The issue does not happen in Firefox… but it kind of chokes.
Overall my tip here would be to avoid CTRL+A on a topic cause you will get the sidebar and a bunch of mess.
Instead CTRL+P, which will bring up the print view: https://meta.discourse.org/t/cannot-ctrl-a-to-select-and-entire-topic/336047/print
This view is far better fit for purpose given it has a print stylesheet and CTRL+A works great there.
Not sure if we can restore the old behavior on Chrome cause by restoring it we may end up breaking triple click on a post 