7 ways to copy content from a website with disabled text selection and right clicking
“… if it’s online, in one way or another it can be copied”
Since the beginning, the idea of having the internet was as a result of the need to share information freely.
Over the years website developers have come up with several ways to ‘disable’ copying of information from websites. But if you know what you are doing and where to look no such barriers can prevent getting what you want.
The most common way websites use to disable copying and right click involves use of JavaScript, whereas others use simple styling properties to disable text selection.
Personally, I would not advise any of my clients to implement these restrictions on their websites since it only gives your visitors a bad experience.
Below are some of the ways you can copy content from a website that has disabled text selection and/or right-clicking.
1. Disable JavaScript from the browser
As I mentioned in the beginning most website use JavaScript to disable text selection and right-clicking. Luckily browsers have a setting where you can either enable or disable JavaScript and in this case disable it, save and reload the page.
Once done copying don’t forget to activate javascript because some websites like facebook and other heavy rely on JS and disabling it will break these websites.
2. Copy from website source code
Websites are written in hypertext markup language (HTML). This code can be viewed by right clicking on the website if not disabled and selecting “View source”
For beginners, this will be confusing and overwhelming and you might require basic HTML skills.
However, if the website has disabled right click simply put below on your browser followed by the website/page URL
- view-source:https://www.manjemedia.com
Once you have access to the code you can easily get the information you want and copy paste as you desire.
3. Select from inspect element.
I will recommend this method for copying a small amount of text, it’s tedious. If the website is right click enabled but you can’t select the text simply right click on the text and choose “Inspect element” A small window will open with the web page source codes.
The only task will be to find the text within the codes mostly held by “<p></p>” code which you can comfortably copy. I know it’s confusing but check out below, to help you understand
I know it’s confusing but check out below, to help you understand
Copy from inspect element code
4. Using Proxy Sites
As opposed to disabling JavaScript from browser’s setting, some proxy website will give you an option to disables JavaScript before accessing a website.
There are many websites offering this service, search for “free proxy website” on your favorite search engine and begin to experiment.
5. Print website to PDF
In this case, you need to install print-to-PDF drivers such as PDFCreator. After installing the drivers you can easily print that web page to PDF which you can then copy the content you require.
6. Disable from CSS user-select property
CSS, i.e. Cascading Style Sheets, is what defines how the website looks likes i.e. the colors, fonts e.t.c This tool can also be used to disable text selection on a website using the property.user-select
Using inspect element window locate this property on the CSS. If you find it ‘untick’ to disable it.
7. Take a screenshot of the content.
This is particularly useful with images where you can take a screenshot of the image/s from the restricted website and save it in your computer.
In addition, using OCR. i.e “Optical Character Recognition” technology one can extract all visible text as editable text and copy the text.
Conclusion
It’s best practice to always acknowledge the source once you copy any information from a website, that way you won’t be stealing.
Infographic: 7 ways to copy content from a restricted website
I am a trained information scientist, a creative and marketing consultant. I work with business owners on their sales and marketing efforts.
Comments: 89
Awesome tips. Thanks Bro
dnm,
Saved as a favorite, I like your website!
Hi Angie, Thanks.
thanks bro I needed this for my online exams cuz some websites have disabled text-selection
Same situation is here , therefore i am searching it
Bruh
same situation
Simplest way is to save the Page using ctrl+S, then Open it locally.
There you go and do what ever you want with it.
Yes, you can do that but saving the page also downloads the scripts that disable copying.
in Firefox Browser ver.72 menu View/ Enter Reader view (F9 key) enables select and copy text.
Enjoy
Thanks, Attila
@Atilla Based on your FireFox comment I found a Chrome equivalent:
In Chrome go to: chrome://flags/#enable-reader-mode
Then select “Enabled”
Then browser restarts, opening all tabs automatically (phew)
Then if you want to copy and paste, go to the Chrome menu (…) and select “Toggle reader mode”.
If you want to view pages normally again, toggle it again.
same in microsoft edge.
Attila, you’re wonderful. This simple hack just saved a life. Thanks
By far the easiest way. Using ctrl+S the page can be saved as a html-file. After that open the html in Windows Word and you can edit and copy/paste.
thanks you saved me a lot, im in 8th right now
Download the page and it through word
Open it through microsoft word
I have never tried it but if it works that’s good.
This worked for me! Thank you 🙂
awesome… it worked for me… thank you
thankyou.
finally after an era of disparity from the above success
BEST WAY.. THANKS
thanku dear it really worked and was easy
thanx n regards
Nasir hussain
KASHMIR
I’m glad you found this useful. Cheers!
Great tips bro, no.3 worked for me
Awesome! All the best.
It really helped.. thank you so much ?
V.helpful
worth enough for me. In my view,
hi
does website owner know that we are blocking javascript, saving pages and doing, copy and paste from the restricted website?
Hi Diksha, NO the website owner will not know.
You are just the best.. God bless you .
How to copy mathematical text which is associated with MATHJAX or LATEX …..This has not been covered in your article.
Pls reply its urgent and would be helpful.
Honestly, there is a website i want to extract some information from, I have tried everything I read here it is not working. who can please help me?
Hello Princess, sharing a link to the content you want to copy can be helpful to the readers who wants to help.
Well, I’m using chrome on iPad and I tried meddling with the “https” address and it’s worked for me! Why isn’t that mentioned in here I wonder?
Thank you for your contribution. There are 1001 ways to do this, I list a few of them.
hi.. i tried to paste some things in a certain site and i blocked java script but i still cant paste on that site any help ben ?
Hello, to get help from fans of this page, it would be best if you share the specific page URL you are trying to copy from. Thanks
the first way worked with me , thanks
help me am desparete bro
How to copy this
plz help
https://www.learncbse.in/class-12-geography-notes-chapter-16/
Hello Neeraj, I have checked the link and you can view the page source and copy the text as required. Follow option 2
Regarding point 3. Select from inspect element.
Some elements have text split across multiple elements. So, you can’t just copy paste the text from the inspector tool.
Here is a work around using chrome browser. But, one needs to know how browser debugging tools work to understand this.
1 – Find out which html element contains the protected text (use the selector tool, press ctrl + shift + C and hover around the right element.)
2 – In elements tab, right click the selected element > click copy > click copy element.
3 – Create a text file with .html extension and the tags ” “. Paste the text copied in step 2 between the html tags and save.
4 – Open your html page and copy the text without problems.
To avoid copy pasting try this JS script – https://superuser.com/a/1282849. I have not tried it myself though.
HTH.
Was really annoyed when I could neither download nor copy my textbook available online. Attila’s suggestion worked for me. Thanks, Attila.
Thanks, Ben, for making it happen
amazing! It works. Thankyou so much.I have been searching for this
Excellent ideas, I tried disable JavaScript and ‘print’ to PDF, both worked exactly as you said, many thanks.
nice work man
really awesome
I tried blocking javascript..and then whoosh…all text disappeared
Tip : You can also use ublock origin to disable javascirpt with just one click.
thanks bro for the help
Thanks A Million!!!!!!!1
Thanks A Zillion! I went mad when I was not able to copy my online textbook and you helped me just at that time.
Thank you !!
Thank you so much!
tha Java script one worked for me
Thanks a lot. The last one was the best.
Why can’t I copy and paste from websites
Very useful. Thanks a lot !
Thank you so much Sir, I am a student need information from websites but due to restriction, I was not able to access the information I need it. now have access due to your guidance.
Thank you,
Kamran
Thank you <3
Thank you. It works!
We can also drag and drop text.
It really workss <3
This was really useful, thanks 🙂
Thank you Ben for the tips. I used the ‘export to PDF’ option on Safari and it worked marvelously.
Best is to paste document.designMode=’on’ in the console this will enable editting.
Great article, JavaScript trick still works in 2021 (at least for the site that was giving me trouble)
Yo! Bro you’re helpful… thank you for the info~ loveyou -2021
Thank you so much! It may have took hours copying it by hand, but with your help, I finished it in a few minutes. Thank you!
Thanks for that i gain more experience
This is awesome, thanks
mozilla: press f9
Awesome! saved so much of time, thanks!
Awesome bro thanks!
A big thanks, you solve my problem. user-select was there in the code. thanks
Thanks
it worked!!!
that works like magic,,,thanks bro
Thanks a lot
Thanks a lot. This helped.
There is also a way to copy content from “password” elements. They show only dots and are not copyable. Open inspector, select the arrow in the top left corner (for finding elements in html code). Then click on the password field, and edit the type property of the html element. From “password” to “text”. Click enter to apply changes. This is useful when trying to figure out a password you haven’t written
The first way worked with me , thanks
Using Evernote WebClipper works magic to copy protected text. Simply use the browser extension to save a page to Evernote and find it there as editable/copyable text, including all the images.
web archive the web page works for many sites, also.
Awesome. An article that actually resolves the problem. Much appreciated!
thanks!
lovely …thanks saved much time
For Opera Mini, enter reader mode