Retrieving Selected Text from Webbrowser control in .net(C#)

Question

I've been trying to figure out how to retrieve the text selected by the user in my webbrowser control and have had no luck after digging through msdn and other resources, So I was wondering if there is a way to actually do this. Maybe I simply missed something.

I appreciate any help or resources regarding this.

Thanks

Answer 1

You need to use the Document.DomDocument property of the WebBrowser control and cast this to the IHtmlDocument2 interface provided in the Microsoft.mshtml interop assembly. This gives you access to the full DOM as is available to Javascript actually running in IE.

To do this you first need to add a reference to your project to the Microsoft.mshtml assembly normally at "C:\Program Files\Microsoft.NET\Primary Interop Assemblies\Microsoft.mshtml.dll". There may be more than one, make sure you choose the reference with this path.

Then to get the current text selection, for example:

using mshtml;

...

    IHTMLDocument2 htmlDocument = webBrowser1.Document.DomDocument as IHTMLDocument2;

    IHTMLSelectionObject currentSelection= htmlDocument.selection;

    if (currentSelection!=null) 
    {
        IHTMLTxtRange range= currentSelection.createRange() as IHTMLTxtRange;

        if (range != null)
        {
            MessageBox.Show(range.text);
        }
    }

For more information on accessing the full DOM from a .NET application, see:

• Walkthrough: Accessing the DHTML DOM from C#

• IHTMLDocument2 Interface reference

Answer 2

Just in case anybody is interested in solution that doesn't require adding a reference to mshtml.dll:

private string GetSelectedText()
{
    dynamic document = webBrowser.Document.DomDocument;
    dynamic selection = document.selection;
    dynamic text = selection.createRange().text;
    return (string)text;
}

Answer 3

And if You just use the technique bellow?

//Copy selected text to clipboard

        Clipboard.Clear();
        SendKeys.SendWait("^(c)");

//Get selected text from clipboard

        string strClip = Clipboard.GetText().Trim();
        Clipboard.Clear();

Answer 4

I'm assuming you have a WinForms application which includes a control that opens a website.

Check to see if you can inject/run JavaScript inside your webbrowser control. Using JavaScript, you would be able to find out what was selected and return it. Otherwise, I doubt the web browser control has any knowledge of what is selected inside it.