How to disable text selection using jQuery?

Does jQuery or jQuery-UI have any functionality to disable text selection for given document elements?

Solution 1:

In jQuery 1.8, this can be done as follows:

(function($){
    $.fn.disableSelection = function() {
        return this
                 .attr('unselectable', 'on')
                 .css('user-select', 'none')
                 .on('selectstart', false);
    };
})(jQuery);

Solution 2:

If you use jQuery UI, there is a method for that, but it can only handle mouse selection (i.e. CTRL+A is still working):

$('.your-element').disableSelection(); // deprecated in jQuery UI 1.9

The code is realy simple, if you don't want to use jQuery UI :

$(el).attr('unselectable','on')
     .css({'-moz-user-select':'-moz-none',
           '-moz-user-select':'none',
           '-o-user-select':'none',
           '-khtml-user-select':'none', /* you could also put this in a class */
           '-webkit-user-select':'none',/* and add the CSS class here instead */
           '-ms-user-select':'none',
           'user-select':'none'
     }).bind('selectstart', function(){ return false; });

Solution 3:

I found this answer ( Prevent Highlight of Text Table ) most helpful, and perhaps it can be combined with another way of providing IE compatibility.

#yourTable
{
  -moz-user-select: none;
  -khtml-user-select: none;
  -webkit-user-select: none;
  user-select: none;
}