CSS user-select Property

Posted in CSS Tutorial

Updated on Oct 13, 2024

By Mari Selvan

👁️ 23 - Views

⏳ 4 mins

💬 1 Comment

Photo Credit to CodeToFun

🙋 Introduction

The user-select property in CSS allows developers to control whether text can be selected by the user.

This property is particularly useful for improving the user experience on web pages where selecting text might interfere with interactive elements or design layouts.

💡 Syntax

The syntax for the user-select property is straightforward. It can be applied to any element and accepts different values to control text selection behavior.

Syntax

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element {
  user-select: value;
}

🎛️ Default Value

The default value of the user-select property is auto, allowing text selection unless overridden by specific CSS rules or browser settings.

🏠 Property Values

Value	Description
auto	The default browser behavior, where text selection is allowed.
none	Text selection is disabled for the element and its children.
text	Text selection is allowed within the element.
contain	Text selection is allowed, but only within the bounds of the element.

📄 Example

In this example, we'll disable text selection for a specific <div> element.

index.html

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<!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>
    .no-select {
      user-select: none;
    }
  </style>
</head>
<body>
  <h1>Text Selection Control Example</h1>
  <div class="no-select">
    <p>Text inside this div cannot be selected.</p>
  </div>
</body>
</html>

🖥️ Browser Compatibility

The user-select property is supported in most modern browsers, including the latest versions of Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Edge, and Opera. However, browser support for specific values like contain may vary. It's recommended to test your implementation across different browsers to ensure consistent behavior.

🎉 Conclusion

The user-select property is a valuable tool for web developers aiming to enhance user experience by controlling text selection behavior on their websites.

By strategically applying this property, you can improve usability and prevent unintended interactions with text content. Experiment with different values to find the best approach for your design and functionality needs.