Re: CSS Generated content selection

On Apr 26, 2007, at 4:41 PM, Alex Mogilevsky wrote:

> I'd like to put in a couple of cents by mentioning that in Internet  
> Explorer (where I work) we believe that the best end-user  
> experience is to be able to select and copy content as it appear on  
> screen. For generated content it certainly means carrying over  
> anything generated, such as quotes, counters, chapter titles, etc.
>
> Many scenarios were touched in this thread, so the complete answer  
> is probably not that simple, I will not try to pretend I have it  
> all covered. But really, the simple scenarios should do what is  
> intuitive to the user (select what you see), and it doesn't  
> contradict "semantic" copy for applications that are fully aware of  
> content model and formatting rules.

Has Microsoft or anyone else done a broad study of user preferences  
regarding what is copied to the clipboard from a browser? Apologizes  
if I'm overlooking anyone's comment, but everything I can recall  
reading in this discussion has been speculative (or at least phrased  
as such) or based on personal preference. I expect that you're right  
-- indeed that the vast majority of web users will be surprised and  
confused by anything other than copying exactly what they see on  
screen. (Remember we are talking largely about people who not only  
have no idea how the internet works but would run away very quickly  
if you started explaining it to them.) But I'd be interested in any  
usability research that's been done.

_____
David Walbert
LEARN NC, UNC-Chapel Hill
dwalbert@learnnc.org