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I am running Google Chrome 5. How can I select hyper link text using the mouse with, for example, CTRL or ALT keys?

mmonem
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8 Answers8

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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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  • I wish it was as easy as Chrome for Android, where you can select to copy the text or the hyperlink. Addin that to the righ click as a Chrome feature would be handy... – Metafaniel Oct 21 '15 at 14:40
  • Needs more upvotes - this answer works when the above doesn't. – Danny Staple May 01 '17 at 09:36
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    Press ctrl + alt if you're on Linux. – MageWind Nov 13 '17 at 17:41
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    "Alt + Shift" works as well on KDE. – fywe Nov 16 '17 at 09:24
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    anybody knows how to do this on mac? on mac opt+click downloads the file as of March2018 – santiago arizti Mar 20 '18 at 23:01
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    "cmd + alt" works for Firefox 61 on Linux with MATE desktop. The "cmd" is necessary or MATE will interpret your action as moving the window. "ctrl + alt" also makes it possible to select, but in that case releasing the mouse opens the link. – Zhiyong Sep 13 '18 at 01:31
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    For osx, ctrl+left click brings up right-click menu. If you do this to URLs it will automatically select it. I find this much easier and less error-prone compared to right-clicking the link when using the trackpad. – Dogemore May 16 '20 at 01:26
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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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    my intuition told me to do this too. but this isn't working for me on chrome 38 on a mac. they made me use a mac. – Alexander Taylor Nov 04 '14 at 10:22
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    This does not always work. – jameshfisher Nov 05 '15 at 15:23
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    This does not allow selecting only a middle section of a link. – Louis Jan 26 '16 at 12:58
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    This is consistently and repeatably not working for Chrome on OS/X. Safari works fine. – WestCoastProjects Feb 25 '16 at 15:17
  • This doesn't work. Try selecting google search results. – theonlygusti Jan 21 '17 at 10:33
  • @theonlygusti This works just fine on Google results. Just keep in mind the cursor must be right below the link (right when the cursor changes from pointer to normal cursor), and right before the place where you want to start the selection. Holding `ALT` is also an alternative so you don't have to find the right spot for the cursor and just select as you like – Piyin Dec 14 '17 at 16:49
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Try this extension: Hyperlink Text Selector

holden321
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    How does this thing work?? I activated it within Chrome but depressing shift does not make selecting the text possible - at least in OS/X. – WestCoastProjects Feb 25 '16 at 15:26
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    Please quote the essential parts of the answer from the reference link(s), as the answer can become invalid if the linked page(s) change. – DavidPostill Sep 09 '18 at 09:45
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    Please read [How do I recommend software](https://meta.superuser.com/questions/5329/how-do-i-recommend-software-in-my-answers/5330#5330) for some tips as to how you should go about recommending software. You should provide at least a link, some additional information about the software itself, and how it can be used to solve the problem in the question. – DavidPostill Sep 09 '18 at 09:46
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There is a chrome extension now called: ToggleLink: Select Text From Link

Tony Lee
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    Tried that a while ago. Didn't work for me :( – Oliver Salzburg Feb 19 '13 at 16:37
  • @OliverSalzburg This extension is not working on some page like Gmail. But most site appear fine. See introduction of the extension on Google Web Store for detail. – Tony Lee Feb 19 '13 at 20:33
  • This works for me, it's a little bit tricky to use but it works. Just right click on the link and select ToggleLink(GetText) from context menu. – Iuliu Atudosiei Aug 19 '13 at 07:13
  • Worked well for me - I just have to tap Shift and it removes the hyperlink so the text underneath is fully selectable just like any other webpage text. – Pat May 12 '16 at 16:52
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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).

enter image description here

Permission requirements:

enter image description here

Franck Dernoncourt
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  • Thanks but I can't stand with "Read and change all your data in the websites you visit" unless the author of the addon is Google. Does it really need this permission? – mmonem Feb 27 '20 at 10:57
  • @mmonem idk, I'm not familiar with Chrome permissions. – Franck Dernoncourt Feb 27 '20 at 16:46
  • @mmonem It needs to be able to read the text in order to copy it. – Louis Oct 05 '20 at 10:02
  • I think Google adds confusion here by calling HTML content data. What then can we call cookies and local storage for websites? – mmonem Oct 05 '20 at 12:21
  • This extension, as well as its equivalent [Copy Link Text](https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/copy-link-text/loeniidbmeohdlmipbpkfmiogbcncibh?hl=en), stopped working a few weeks ago. – Marco Lackovic Nov 13 '22 at 13:04
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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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    Actually my concern is the text in the middle of a long hyperlink. I can't believe it is a missing feature in all browsers! – mmonem Aug 09 '10 at 17:10
  • @mmonem: No way - need to select it all, then cut up using a text editor. – harrymc Aug 09 '10 at 19:04
  • @harrymc, do ypu have any reference for what you say? – mmonem Aug 10 '10 at 04:58
  • @mmonem: Only my personal experience. But as you can see, no other person on this forum has come up with another idea. – harrymc Aug 10 '10 at 06:24
  • In Firefox is pretty simple actually. Just right-click the link and select "Bookmark This Link". Then you can copy the text from the dialog and click on cancel. – Robert Jul 21 '14 at 22:05
  • Yeah the default is to actually drag an object version of the hyperlink. But honestly how often do people use that capability? I don't think I've ever dragged a hyperlink. If I want to add a bookmark I will navigate to the page and drag the page icon to my bar. I'd much rather be able to select text in a link than drag a hyperlink! – devios1 Sep 03 '14 at 17:51
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    In firefox you can just hold and drag select text. It's annoying Chrome doesn't share this feature. – Morphit Oct 19 '14 at 20:48
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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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