# How do you access the spoilers that have been blacked out? **URL:** \ **Category:** About This Message Board\ **Created:** [December 18, 2004, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-access-the-spoilers-that-have-been-blacked-out/280562 "2004-12-18T21:27:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Sycorax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a4c791/32.png) [@Sycorax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sycorax)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2004, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-access-the-spoilers-that-have-been-blacked-out/280562/1 "2004-12-18T21:27:09Z")
I was just reading a thread with a spoiler that had been blacked out; I wanted to read the spoiler, but couldn’t figure out how to do it. ---
**Author:** ![shijinn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cc9497/32.png) [@shijinn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shijinn)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2004, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-access-the-spoilers-that-have-been-blacked-out/280562/2 "2004-12-18T21:38:33Z")
highlight it by dragging your mouse cursor or right-click and choose ‘select all’. ---
**Author:** ![ivylass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9de053/32.png) [@ivylass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivylass)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2004, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-access-the-spoilers-that-have-been-blacked-out/280562/3 "2004-12-19T02:21:13Z")
You can also triple-click your mouse over the spoiler area and it will show up. ---
**Author:** ![Scarlett67](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scarlett67/32/7387_2.png) [@Scarlett67](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scarlett67)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2004, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-access-the-spoilers-that-have-been-blacked-out/280562/4 "2004-12-20T15:07:19Z")
Or, if you’re using Opera, use Ctrl-G (and again to toggle back to normal view). ---
**Author:** ![shijinn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cc9497/32.png) [@shijinn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shijinn)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2004, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-access-the-spoilers-that-have-been-blacked-out/280562/5 "2004-12-20T17:36:23Z")
if you’re using IE, Ctrl-A. ---
**Author:** ![Lobsang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobsang/32/4067_2.png) [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2004, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-access-the-spoilers-that-have-been-blacked-out/280562/6 "2004-12-20T21:43:26Z")
Here’s how… Use the crow-bar that’s inside the box to get the box open. Easy. ---
**Author:** ![Ignatz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/3be4f8/32.png) [@Ignatz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ignatz)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2004, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-access-the-spoilers-that-have-been-blacked-out/280562/7 "2004-12-20T23:46:38Z")
**Until now, not knowing any better** , I’ve been just clicking on the “reply” box in that post and it opens, but then you have to “back” out of it. ---
**Author:** ![yabob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yabob/32/2821_2.png) [@yabob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yabob)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2004, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-access-the-spoilers-that-have-been-blacked-out/280562/8 "2004-12-21T00:54:36Z")
Note - it wouldn’t take any more page real estate to make the text say “Spoiler (select text to read):” or something like this. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2004, 1:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-access-the-spoilers-that-have-been-blacked-out/280562/9 "2004-12-21T13:00:25Z")
> [@yabob](#): > > Note - it wouldn’t take any more page real estate to make the text say “Spoiler (select text to read):” or something like this. I don’t think the board software would support it; as far as I understand it, there’s a table that describes the HTML with which each kind of vB tag is to be replaced and the current layout fully utilises the available field size. ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2004, 3:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-access-the-spoilers-that-have-been-blacked-out/280562/10 "2004-12-23T03:37:18Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > I don’t think the board software would support it; as far as I understand it, there’s a table that describes the HTML with which each kind of vB tag is to be replaced and the current layout fully utilises the available field size. If I remember vB, most stuff is done in fairly flat templates so it shouldn’t be hard at all. If the pieces are coming from individual DB fields I find it unlikely that they would be smaller than 255 chars, which is plenty.