user-select
Limited availability
This feature is not Baseline because it does not work in some of the most widely-used browsers.
Theuser-selectCSS property controls whether the user can select text. This doesn't have any effect on content loaded as part of a browser's user interface (itschrome), except in textboxes.
Try it
user-select: none;user-select: text;user-select: all;<section> <p>Try to select this text</p></section>#example-element { font-size: 1.5rem;}Syntax
/* Keyword values */user-select: none;user-select: auto;user-select: text;user-select: all;/* Global values */user-select: inherit;user-select: initial;user-select: revert;user-select: revert-layer;user-select: unset;Note:user-select is not an inherited property, though the initialauto value makes it behave like it is inherited most of the time. WebKit/Chromium-based browsersdo implement the property as inherited, which violates the behavior described in the spec, and this will bring some issues. Until now, Chromium has chosen tofix the issues to make the final behavior meet the specifications.
Values
noneThe text of the element and its sub-elements is not selectable. Note that the
Selectionobject can contain these elements.autoThe used value of
autois determined as follows:- On the
::beforeand::afterpseudo elements, the used value isnone - If the used value of
user-selecton the parent of this element isnone, the used value isnone - Otherwise, if the used value of
user-selecton the parent of this element isall, the used value isall - Otherwise, the used value is
text
- On the
textThe text can be selected by the user.
allThe content of the element shall be selected atomically: If a selection would contain part of the element, then the selection must contain the entire element including all its descendants. If a double-click or context-click occurred in sub-elements, the highest ancestor with this value will be selected.
Note:TheCSS basic user interface module defines acontain value for theuser-select property to enable selection to start within the element to be contained by the bounds of that element, however, this is not supported in any browsers.
Formal definition
| Initial value | auto |
|---|---|
| Applies to | all elements |
| Inherited | no |
| Computed value | as specified |
| Animation type | discrete |
Formal syntax
user-select =
auto|
text|
none|
contain|
all
Examples
HTML
<p>You should be able to select this text.</p><p>Hey, you can't select this text!</p><p>Clicking once will select all of this text.</p>CSS
.unselectable { -webkit-user-select: none; /* Safari */ user-select: none;}.all { -webkit-user-select: all; user-select: all;}Result
Specifications
| Specification |
|---|
| CSS Basic User Interface Module Level 4 # content-selection |
Browser compatibility
See also
::selectionpseudo-element- The JavaScript
Selectionobject