How to copy/paste text of random size from webpage and keep format

[vitorbf]

Hello, guys.

I'm having trouble capturing a certain section of text from a webpage (using Internet Explorer).

1. My goal
What I want is to copy a certain section of text from several webpages and then paste it into a Word document. Basically, it's just clicking, dragging (to select the text), copying and pasting it just the way it is into the Word document.

2. Webpage structure (see attached image "Screenshot")
The page consists of many sections of text, each having a small header. The sections vary in size, and that's the root of the problem (it would be easy to use MouseClickDrag to select the text it they all had the same size).

Looking at the attached screenshot (I covered what might possibly be confidential information), the section I want to copy starts in 1 ("Dados do...") and ends in 2 ("Partes do..."). Everything inside the red square. I want to copy and paste with the same formatting.

3. What I tried already
a. Click, drag and copy: doesn't work because the sections of text vary in size
b. _IEBodyReadText: this almost works, but the text loses the format

I was thinking that maybe something could be done with _IEBodyReadHTML and then translating the HTML formatting instructions to Word, but I didn't have any insights so far. Would it work?

Is there a simpler way?

Obs: the section "Movimentações" always comes right after, in case that helps somehow.

 

Versions:
Autoit v3.3.14.5
Windows 7
IE 11

Edited September 17, 2018 by vitorbf

[jdelaney]

Look into all the _ie* functions. Some will allow you to grab specific nodes, and then you can get the .text from that.

Edited September 18, 2018 by jdelaney

[vitorbf]

Thanks for the reply, jdelaney!

Sorry for the lack of knowledge, but would that .text you mentioned contain the current formatting (the same way a copy/paste to Word with mouse selection does)? Because I already know how to copy and paste the text itself by using _IEBodyReadText, but in this way the formatting is lost.

 

I have been looking into the IE functions, and I can feel the answer is right around the corner, but I feel I lack the knowledge in HTML structures and manipulation... Could you just point me in the right direction, like pointing to a specific function or just outlining how I could achieve my goal?

 

Sorry again if I'm abusing. I'm not a programmer and also new to Autoit.

[jdelaney]

It would be kind of involved.  You'd have to grab all the formatting, and add in that formatting yourself into word.  So it would be overkill for what you are attempting to do.  But it was also be the most accurate way to grab data consistently.

 

#include <IE.au3>
$oIE = _IECreate('https://www.google.com/',1)
$oObj = _IEGetObjById($oIE,'gbqfbb')
ConsoleWrite($oObj.getattribute('value') & @CRLF)
ConsoleWrite($oObj.currentstyle.color & @CRLF)
ConsoleWrite($oObj.currentstyle.fontfamily & @CRLF)
ConsoleWrite($oObj.currentstyle.fontsize & @CRLF)

output:
I'm Feeling Lucky
#757575
arial,sans-serif
13px

 

[mLipok]

@vitorbf

Maybe like in this example:

 

btw.
 to the forum.

 

[vitorbf]

@jdelaney

Thanks for the ideia.
That would be hard as hell, though...

@mLipok

Thanks, dude!

I tried your script and used it in the webpage that I wanted, but both "withCSS" and "noCSS" were identical.

 

Maybe it will help if provide the exact word I want the mouse to hover to, along with the HTML containers. See picture below. I tried _IEGetObjByName($oIE, "Movimentações "), but it doesn't seem to work.

 

EXTRA:

I searched even more, and found topics that are more similar to what I want to accomplish, but they are old topics and the examples provided throw errors I do not understand (I believe it may be because of versions changing)

I'll give some links just to define better what I want:

 

 

[mLipok]

10 hours ago, vitorbf said:

I tried your script and used it in the webpage that I wanted, but both "withCSS" and "noCSS" were identical.

Is this website contains <frame...   or <iframe.....   ?

 

[vitorbf]

@mLipok

No, no <frame> or <iframe>...

 

Anyway, I found a solution. I used Ctrl+F to highlight the words and PixelSearch to find the pixels of the color highlight, and thus getting the coordinates of the beginning of the words.

The solution is so improvised and "ugly" that I don't know if I should share with the forum, but I'll share here anyway. (Should I close the topic?)

 

I did something like this:

1) Hit Ctrl+F and type "Dados do..." (where the selection will start at) in order to make the word be highlighted in the webpage

2) Use PixelSearch looking for the first pixel matching the color of the highlight (0x3399FF)

3) Get the coordinates of the pixel

4) Repeat steps 1 to 3 to find the word that always comes right after what I want (word "Movimentações")

5) Use MouseClickDrag using the two coordinates. The selection will include the word in the first coordinate and ignore the word "Movimentações" because it comes after the pixel and the end of the selection. This made the selection be exactly what I wanted. See below.