Overview of the TextRange Object
What Do I Do with a TextRange Object?
Positioning the TextRange Object
Creating a TextRange Object
Getting the Content of a TextRange
Comparing Ranges
Commands
Overview of the TextRange Object
Text range objects are an advanced feature of Dynamic HTML (DHTML) that you can use to carry out useful tasks related to dynamic content, such as searching for and selecting text. Text ranges let you selectively pick out characters, words, and sentences from a document. The TextRange object is an abstract object that creates a start and end position over the stream of text that would appear in the HTML document. Consider the following simple HTML document:
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What Do I Do with a TextRange Object?
There are two parts to manipulating text with a TextRange object. The first is to create a text range so that the start and end positions encompass the desired text. The next step is to apply a method to the text range, or make a copy of the text to be used elsewhere in the document. Once the text range is positioned, you can search for text, select the text, and make a copy of the text and use it elsewhere in your document.
See the TextRange object in the Object Model Reference for the properties and methods supported.
Positioning the TextRange Object
Each text range has a start and an end position defining the scope of the text that is encompassed by the TextRange object. When you create a new text range, the start and end positions encompass the entire content by default. Use methods such as move, moveStart, and moveEnd to change the scope of the text range.
Other methods can position the TextRange object with respect to a particular element, or a point on the page. For example, moveToElementText positions the text range so that it encompasses the text contained by the given element. The moveToPoint method positions the text range at a given point where the user clicked a mouse button. The x and y positions of the user's click are known by the window.event object and can be used to position the range over a given point. From this collapsed point, the range can then be expanded to encompass a word, sentence, or a whole textEdit (the entire possible TextRange object).
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