# "spoiler" Black Box

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spoiler-black-box/486224>\
**Category:** About This Message Board\
**Created:** [February 17, 2009, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spoiler-black-box/486224 "2009-02-17T03:26:00Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![bobot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bobot/32/21622_2.png) [@bobot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bobot)\
**Post date:** [February 17, 2009, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spoiler-black-box/486224/1 "2009-02-17T03:26:00Z")

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I am new to the board, and don’t understand the boxes I see sometimes in certain thread replies. A black box with the heading “spoiler”. I understand that there may within the box the punchline to a joke, or a description of the ending of a movie, etc. But how do I view it? Thanks.  
Bobo T

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**Author:** ![Q.E.D](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/51bf81/32.png) [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)\
**Post date:** [February 17, 2009, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spoiler-black-box/486224/2 "2009-02-17T03:28:12Z")

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You can either drag to highlight the text within or use CTRL+left-click. The latter doesn’t work with all browsers, IIRC.

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**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\
**Post date:** [February 17, 2009, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spoiler-black-box/486224/3 "2009-02-17T03:28:18Z")

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Hit ctrl+a, which highlights all text in a thread, or drag your cursor across the text in the spoiler box. Or you can just hit ‘Reply to Post’ and you’ll see it in text form.

I hope that’s clear - try dragging your mouse across this:

This is just for practice.

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**Author:** ![bobot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bobot/32/21622_2.png) [@bobot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bobot)\
**Post date:** [February 17, 2009, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spoiler-black-box/486224/4 "2009-02-17T03:30:55Z")

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Aha, I see! Thank you very much!

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**Author:** ![Larry\_Borgia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/larry_borgia/32/156_2.png) [@Larry\_Borgia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Borgia)\
**Post date:** [February 17, 2009, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spoiler-black-box/486224/5 "2009-02-17T03:53:54Z")

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triple clicking your mouse works too.

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**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\
**Post date:** [February 17, 2009, 10:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spoiler-black-box/486224/6 "2009-02-17T10:42:52Z")

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> [@Marley23](#):
>
> Hit ctrl+a, which highlights all text in a thread, or drag your cursor across the text in the spoiler box.

Not to be pedantic, but just in case someone is confused by that instruction, it’s the mouse pointer that should be dragged, not the cursor. The cursor is the thing that shows you where you are while you’re typing. It doesn’t even show up in spoiler boxes.