Why can't I select text anymore?

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1

In the past, when I composed a message, I could ‘select’ a word or two or more in the body of my post (then bold them, underline them, delete them, create a link, etc). I would do this putting my cursor next to the first word I wanted to highlight, then dragging it across to the last letter of the last word I wanted to highlight. Alternatively, I could use shift+option+arrow to accomplish the same thing. Or I could double click on a word, which would select it & if I kept clicking it would select multiple words, then the whole sentence, then the whole paragraph, etc.

But I can no longer do that. Nothing happens when I use any of the methods that used to work to highlight text. So if I want to delete a sentence (e.g.), I have to place my cursor at the end of that sentence, then hit the delete key until the sentence is all gone. I use a macbook pro, but I don’t think it’s my computer because I can still highlight text in outlook, word, on facebook, etc.

So if this even makes sense to anyone…why can I no longer highlight text when posting on the sdmb?

2

What browser are you using? This affects posters who are using Chrome. For whatever reason, the bug also only affects the SDMB Mobile theme (Sultantheme’s Responsive vB3-blue).

There are several fixes for this.

  1. Switching to the regular theme (Straightdope v3.7.3). The drop-down menu to select the theme is on the lower left side of the page.

  2. Use a different browser.

  3. Revert to an older version of Chrome.

There’s a sticky thread with this information in ATMB.

https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=857192

3

I have this problem with Chrome and Windows 10. But the text is still selected, you just can’t see the selection highlight. Annoying, I know.

4

Read the sticky at the top of the page; “Can’t highlight text in Chrome? Read this.”

5

Try flushing your cache. That solved the issue here.

6

Thanks, everyone. I followed cochrane’s Fix #1 and it solved the problem. Weird thing is that I’ve been using Chrome for years & have never had this problem-- it just started happening within the past week. Not sure why, but I appreciate the solutions.

7

:slight_smile:

engineer_comp_geek’s advice, actually. I only copied it over from the sticky. I like to give credit where it is deserved.