cannot copy text from print preview
Hi.
I'm a long time firefox user. The past few years, I have not been able to copy text from print preview. This is important to me, as I run a small business and need to copy order numbers from the print preview screen to keep my work flow going. I can do this in chrome, but cannot in firefox.
It is nothing I can copy from a website, as it is a link I click to open the invoice.
The only work around that I know of would be to print the pdf to a file, open the file, and copy it from there - but this is not acceptable because it is too time consuming.
If anyone has something that will work, it would be much appreciated.
All Replies (8)
Isn't that data available from the original webpage ? I assume that the print preview window is drawn on canvas and not something that supports Copy to clipboard.
Chrome does not appear to allow selection or any other interaction with the content of print preview documents on Windows or macOS. Microsoft Edge does, so maybe you mean that?
Regarding Firefox, this was a deliberate choice to make it clear to users they can't expect selection in the print preview to show up in the print output, or to be confused about whether they should be able to select and delete parts of the print preview document before printing. The way it's implemented, it's not possible for an Add-on to override this behavior. If you'd like this to change you'll need to file a request over at https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/ for consideration of the use case. If you do that, please comment here with a link to the issue you file.
cor-el said
Isn't that data available from the original webpage ? I assume that the print preview window is drawn on canvas and not something that supports Copy to clipboard.
No, that information is not available from the original webpage.
I have a home business selling items on ebay and etsy. on ebay, when you click on print invoice - it automatically goes to print preview screen and does not open it as a second page.
The crux of the problem is, with Firefox - it is impossible for me to highlight the order number and copy it in the print preview screen. Whereas Chrome - this is no problem, I can do it all day all night.
For now, I've switched to vivaldi which I can also do this without problem...but would really like it to be fixed in firefox.
Jonathan Watt said
Chrome does not appear to allow selection or any other interaction with the content of print preview documents on Windows or macOS. Microsoft Edge does, so maybe you mean that? Regarding Firefox, this was a deliberate choice to make it clear to users they can't expect selection in the print preview to show up in the print output, or to be confused about whether they should be able to select and delete parts of the print preview document before printing. The way it's implemented, it's not possible for an Add-on to override this behavior. If you'd like this to change you'll need to file a request over at https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/ for consideration of the use case. If you do that, please comment here with a link to the issue you file.
actually, i print my invoices from a ubuntu 20.04 machine, but since you asked - i tested it on windows 10 and chrome works the same - no issues:
Oh, it seems to be page dependent, and I just happened to test a page where the text was not selectable. So yeah, selecting works on most other pages I've tried now. This given more weight to your argument that Firefox should allow this too, so I'd encourage you again to file that issue at bugzilla.mozilla.org
Jonathan Watt said
Oh, it seems to be page dependent, and I just happened to test a page where the text was not selectable. So yeah, selecting works on most other pages I've tried now. This given more weight to your argument that Firefox should allow this too, so I'd encourage you again to file that issue at bugzilla.mozilla.org
Thank you.
Jonathan Watt said
Thank you.
Thank you! I hope it gets fixed. I would love to go back to using firefox again.