non-selectable text

another IE/Mac thing

[gulliver]

Quick workaround/explanation requested if anyone has it...

With IE5/Mac, on some sites I can't select snippets of text without selecting the whole page.

Happens at Zeldman. And my own site. So it's some sort of bug.

Not a huge problem - good input appreciated. Thanks.

[DrDoc]

Have you been able to narrow down when the bug is triggered and when it isn't?

[yowza]

When I've had this problem, I have always found it to be a div or something overlapping the text I want to select.

[DrDoc]

Assign borders to the elements to make sure that that's what's happening. Then, if they overlap, make sure that the elements have the right width...

[gulliver]

Thanks guys for the suggestions - although 'none of the above' they're nonetheless appreciated.

Since I posted, I've indavertently found a solution - looking like 'another example of unpredictable browser behaviour' I'll post this for anyone anal enough to want to avoid similar problems.

My layout is a variant of an old Zeldman thing...

'A two-column structure comprising a centered 'wrapper' element containing a primary content column that’s floated left and a static sidebar to the right.'

The pertinent part of the Zeldman css is

#content{
float: left;
width: 385px;
text-align: left;
padding: 0;
border: 0;
margin: 0 0 0 15px;
}

#sidebar{
margin: 0 0 0 450px;
padding: 0;
text-align: left;
border: 0;
}

The css is at /c/z3.css and an html page at /daily/1203j.shtml - in both cases add your own .com bit.

The numbers are slightly different on mine - some padding requires a bmh - though the principle is identical... the margin on the right sidebar sits it against the content and thus saves messing around calculating additional widths and bmh which would be required were it floated. And I don't allow the generous 50px gap between them as JZ does.

The 'problem' arises when positioning the cursor in the content div to highlight text. It simply doesn't work. This behaviour remains with the current Zeldman site - with a twist... positioning the cursor in the content div to highlight text hightlights stuff in the sidebar.

As I've said, not a huge problem - though one which is annoying and unnecessary.

My 'accidentally discovered' workaround is simple. Wrapping the content and sidebar in their own outer container div removes the issue.

So there, now we all know.