Can't select text in posts

April 3, 2002 5:56 AM

Has it always been like this? In IE 5.1 for mac I am unable to select text on the FP, but I can select text on the sidebar. In Opera I have no problems. I am thinking of downgrading from 5.1 I have had many problems with it.
posted by anathema to Bugs at 5:56 AM (19 comments total)

This is an IE bug, whenever any kind of multiple divs are involved (or z-index) is used. It's extremely annoying, and neither NS 6.2 or Opera 5 exhibits this behavior.
posted by hijinx at 6:33 AM on April 3, 2002

I don't have any such problems (also 5.1/Mac), and I'm unaware of this bug. The form-caching bug is the one that always bites me. anathema, OS 9 or OS X?
posted by rodii at 7:10 AM on April 3, 2002

just a hunch, but this might be "carbon lib" version dependent, or OS 9.x vs. OSX dependent.
posted by machaus at 7:29 AM on April 3, 2002

Possible work-arounds: Sometimes, I'll copy what I want out of source, but generally I'll select all, then copy/paste it into a word processor. At that point it's pretty easy to copy out the portion I want.

It is an anoying bug. It also seems that Mac IE 5.1 can't force a refersh through our company proxy servers. Looking at various forums, that is a bug that MS has known about for at least a year. How hard would it be to send the right header pragma commands - it's like 1 extra line of code, and their PC version can manage it. Despite this, Mac IE 5.1 is my preferred browser on any platform.
posted by willnot at 7:44 AM on April 3, 2002

I have no problems selecting text on the front page using IE5.1/Mac. I do know that IE likes to get weird when it runs low on memory, as it does often (in the OS 9 and below version) since it has a longstanding memory leak problem that has never been fixed. If you're not using OS X, you may want to make sure you still have the same amount of memory assigned to 5.1 that you did to the prior version. People tend to forget they have to reset the memory allocation to its old setting when upgrading, otherwise you have a program running in about 5MB of space and crashing all over the place.
posted by aaron at 8:11 AM on April 3, 2002

I have this same problem and it happens on any page that has a sidebar or text wrapped around an image..

it's slightly annoying because when reading text on a web page I like to highlight it... I inherited this from my brother...

IE 5.1.3 on OSX

puga
posted by PugAchev at 9:20 AM on April 3, 2002

Hmm. I get this bug, too -- IE 5.1 on OS X. If I click and drag the pointer over the text on the front page, it fails to select any of it. Double-clicking on a word, however, does select it -- and triple-clicking succeeds in selecting the entire line I'm on. But I cannot highlight by dragging.

rodii and aaron -- do you have the sidebar displayed? Below the sidebar, I am able to select text normally, as you would expect.

anathema: Collapsing the sidebar is a decent workaround -- you'll then be able to select almost any text on the front page (just not the first post or so, which will still be next to the text-ad and uncollapse button).
posted by mattpfeff at 9:25 AM on April 3, 2002

It's a div bug in IE 5.12 on the mac, but I've seen similar behavior on windows with some complex all CSS layouts. If you want to select text from the front page, you can always go into the comment pages and select the posts one at a time.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 9:55 AM on April 3, 2002

If you want to select text from the front page, you can always go into the comment pages and select the posts one at a time.

Um, collapsing the sidebar would be quicker. If it works in general. I'm jus' sayin'.
posted by mattpfeff at 10:18 AM on April 3, 2002

This happens in IE 6.x too from time to time. There are times when you won't even be able to view source of the page (no fancy tricks on the page, it's an IE bug)
posted by riffola at 10:34 AM on April 3, 2002

This bug isn't specific to OS X vs. OS 9 or to IE 5.1 -- I have long had the same trouble with certain CSS layouts using IE 5.0 on OS 9.
posted by jjg at 12:06 PM on April 3, 2002

mattpfeff--bingo. I had the sidebar collapsed. Uncollapsed, I have the bad behavior too. Good call.
posted by rodii at 2:26 PM on April 3, 2002

Off topic, but I didn't know there was a 5.1 for Mac, or at least non-OS X. Is it worth upgrading?
posted by ParisParamus at 8:07 PM on April 3, 2002

It fixes some rendering bugs and adds a few convenience features, such as the ability to open links in new windows behind the current window by holding Command-Shift while clicking. There's also typeahead for keyboard selection of links, additional "browser themes," and a new preference panel for tweaking the browser's interface. I found it also was more stable.
posted by kindall at 8:29 PM on April 3, 2002

Paris, from the release notes, plus what kindall said:

1.8 New features in Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.1
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
* Interface Extras The new Interface Extras preference panel provides greater control over the Internet Explorer user interface.
* NTLM v2 Internet Explorer 5.1 now supports NTLM version 2 authentication in addition to the previous support for NTLM v1.
* General Enhancements This update offers enhanced reliability and compatibility over previous versions of Internet Explorer for Mac.
posted by machaus at 8:38 PM on April 3, 2002

It's an easy and quick d/l, PP, definitely worth the two minutes' trouble. Just be sure you check your memory partition on your old version first and change 5.1 to the same thing, if not a little higher, after installing.
posted by aaron at 8:51 PM on April 3, 2002

Gracias. I think.
posted by ParisParamus at 9:13 PM on April 3, 2002

PP, as with many MS products I love/hate it. I am running OS 9.2.2 and am having serious problems with (some) java in IE 5.1 (like it crashes the browser). I have tried allocating different amounts of memory and have reinstalled MRJ applet runner, all to no avail. I will try reinstalling IE altogether soon. I have been using Opera to view weather loops, etc.
BTW, thanks to all for help with the text selection problem.
posted by anathema at 2:55 AM on April 4, 2002

A reward to anyone who can get the multimail conduit for Palm OS to work with Mac OS 9.2....
posted by ParisParamus at 4:24 AM on April 4, 2002