tiredCoder

Guide to CSS user-select for Beginners

Stephanie Ugboaja's photo
Stephanie Ugboaja
·

1 min read

Cover Image for Guide to CSS user-select for Beginners

Table of contents

What is it?

The CSS user-select property allows you to control the ability of users to select text on a webpage. This can be useful for improving user experience by enabling or disabling text selection as needed.

Syntax

element {
  user-select: value;
}

Values

all

  • The all value allows a user to select a block of text with just one click.

auto

  • The auto value is the default behavior of the browser. It allows users to select text as they normally would depending on the browser.

none

  • The none value disables or prevents text selection.

text

  • The text value allows only text selection, ignoring other elements like images.

Example

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
  <meta charset="UTF-8">
  <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0">
  <title>CSS user-select Example</title>
  <style>
    .select-all {
      user-select: all;
    }
    .select-none {
      user-select: none;
    }
    .select-text {
      user-select: text;
    }
  </style>
</head>
<body>
  <div class="select-all">Click me to select all text in this block.</div>
  <div class="select-none">You cannot select this text.</div>
  <div class="select-text">You can only select the text in this block, not any images.</div>
</body>
</html>

You can also view a live example on CodeSandbox: CSS user-select Example