How To Copy Text To The Clipboard With HTML And JavaScript

Having a click-able button on your website that allows users to copy text can be easily achieved by using the document.execCommand() method.

Unfortunately support for the execCommand() method is lacking in many old browsers, such as Opera Mini and the UC Browser for Android.

The vast majority of users should be able to copy the text with out any issues and the website can display an error message if the copy command fails.

Additionally to work around browser support problem: As long as we put the text into a text box, it should be easy enough for users using these browsers to manually copy the text to the clipboard.

Copying Text From a Text Box to the Clipboard Using JavaScript

Demo:

Copy To Clipboard

HTML Code

<div> <input type="text" value="The Text to Copy" id="copyMe"> <button onclick="copyMyText()">Copy To Clipboard</button> </div>

JavaScript Code

<script> function copyMyText() { //select the element with the id "copyMe", must be a text box var textToCopy = document.getElementById("copyMe"); //select the text in the text box textToCopy.select(); //copy the text to the clipboard document.execCommand("copy"); } </script>

After pressing the button, you should be able to paste the text into the text field below or in any other application that will accept text being pasted from the clipboard.

Here is a box that you can paste the text into so you don’t have to leave this page:

Unfortunately, due to security concerns, it is not possible to paste text using JavaScript into a browser window through JavaScript, unless it’s a background page of a browser extension. This is to prevent websites from gathering sensitive information such as user passwords.

There is also one big issue with this code, if the user currently has text selected, they will lose their selection. In the following examples, the code will restore the user’s previous text selection if they had one.

How to Copy Any Text By Creating a Selection Range in JavaScript

Since selecting all of the text in a text box using select() will only work with a text box, if you want to copy all text to the clipboard of a specific ID or class name, you will have to create a text selection range instead.

This is a little bit more flexible as you do not have to have a text box.

Demo:

This is example text that will get copied to the clipboard when you press the button below.Copy The Text

HTML Code

<div class="CopyMeClass" id="CopyMeID">The text to copy to the clipboard.</div> <div><button onclick="CopyClassText()">Copy The Text</button></div>

Javascript Code

<script> function CopyClassText(){ //select the element with ID = "CopyMeID", can be a div, p, or a span, possibly others var textToCopy = document.getElementById("CopyMeID"); //you can target the same element using querySelector() as well //example below: //var textToCopy = document.querySelector('.CopyMeClass'); //check and see if the user had a text selection range var currentRange; if(document.getSelection().rangeCount > 0) ;{ //the user has a text selection range, store it currentRange = document.getSelection().getRangeAt(0); //remove the current selection window.getSelection().removeRange(currentRange); } else { //they didn't have anything selected currentRange = false; } //create a selection range var CopyRange = document.createRange(); //choose the element we want to select the text of CopyRange.selectNode(textToCopy); //select the text inside the range window.getSelection().addRange(CopyRange); //copy the text to the clipboard document.execCommand("copy"); //remove our selection range window.getSelection().removeRange(CopyRange); //return the old selection range if(currentRange) { window.getSelection().addRange(currentRange); } } </script>

How to Copy Text To the Clipboard that Isn’t Visible with HTML

This is probably the most useful version of the script as it allows you to generate text in JavaScript, which is not visible on the page at all, then place that text on to the clipboard.

It works by creating an element that is off the screen with the text that is to be copied.

Since browser compatibility could be an issue, the script will also display an error message in a message box if it can’t copy the text. Using a message box isn’t the best way to handle this but you can customize the code to display the error notification any way you choose.

Demo:

Copy Some Text That You Can’t See!

HTML Code

<p><button onclick="AdvancedCopy()">Copy Some Text That You Can't See!</button></p>

JavaScript Code

<script> function AdvancedCopy(){ //the text that is to be copied to the clipboard var theText = 'This is the text that we want to copy to the clipboard'; //create our hidden div element var hiddenCopy = document.createElement('div'); //set the innerHTML of the div hiddenCopy.innerHTML = theText; //set the position to be absolute and off the screen hiddenCopy.style.position = 'absolute'; hiddenCopy.style.left = '-9999px'; //check and see if the user had a text selection range var currentRange; if(document.getSelection().rangeCount > 0) { //the user has a text selection range, store it currentRange = document.getSelection().getRangeAt(0); //remove the current selection window.getSelection().removeRange(currentRange); } else { //they didn't have anything selected currentRange = false; } //append the div to the body document.body.appendChild(hiddenCopy); //create a selection range var CopyRange = document.createRange(); //set the copy range to be the hidden div CopyRange.selectNode(hiddenCopy); //add the copy range window.getSelection().addRange(CopyRange); //since not all browsers support this, use a try block try { //copy the text document.execCommand('copy'); } catch(err) { window.alert("Your Browser Doesn't support this! Error : " + err); } //remove the selection range (Chrome throws a warning if we don't.) window.getSelection().removeRange(CopyRange); //remove the hidden div document.body.removeChild(hiddenCopy); //return the old selection range if(currentRange) { window.getSelection().addRange(currentRange); } } </script>

I really hope that you enjoyed this tutorial!