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How can I select hyperlink text using the mouse, without engaging the link itself? Is there a key combination that would allow this?

For example, holding the Ctrl or Alt keys while clicking and dragging the cursor?

Robotnik
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mmonem
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8 Answers8

106

As of Chrome v52, it now works the same way as Firefox:

Pressing ALT while selecting text prevents hyperlinks being followed, and therefore allows all or partial text in links to be selected and copied.

For older versions of Chrome:

Start the selection just above the text (not below). Just before the mouse cursor changes to a hand. This way you can drag to the right and don't need to mess with the left arrow (which doesn't seem to work anyway).

This unfortunately fails if there is selectable content immediately above the link text.

Laurel
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rwired
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24

The answer is:

Put the mouse cursor below the hyper link just after the cursor changes to the arrow. Now press the left button and move the mouse until the required text is selected. If you put the cursor above the hyper-link it does not work in most cases.

mmonem
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8

Try this extension: Hyperlink Text Selector

holden321
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3

There is a chrome extension now called: ToggleLink: Select Text From Link

Tony Lee
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2

You can use the Google Chrome Copy Link: it will adds a copy link text in the contextual menu when selecting some text and right-clicking on it. It is rated 4.1/5 with 54 reviews and 7500 users on the Google Chrome store (vs. 3.3/5 with 89 reviews and 4300 users for Copy Link Name, and 3.3/5 with 20 reviews and 4850 users for Copy Link Text).

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Permission requirements:

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Franck Dernoncourt
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1

That's a problem with all browsers, because a click on the link executes it.

The workaround is to move the cursor a bit to the right or left of the link, until the cursor changes to its normal shape (not the link-type shape), then click and drag to select the text, finally using ctrl-c to copy the text to the clipboard.

harrymc
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1

You can use built in Developer Tools to locate hyperlink in raw html code and select any part of it.

  1. Right click target hyperlink and choose "Inspect Element" from drop-down menu.
    Developer Tools window will appear in the bottom with hyperlink highlighted in html page code.
  2. Double click hyperlink text (the one between <a>,</a> tags).
    Edit box will appear allowing to select (or edit) any part of hyperlink text.
ks1322
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0

If your intent for the selection is to copy the link text then the best way to do it, which saves from doing the text selection altogether, is to install the following Chrome extension:

Once installed the extra entry showed below will be displayed when right clicking on a link:

enter image description here

The following two extensions do the same thing but as of today (13 November 2022) they are not working:

Marco Lackovic
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