How do I capture a selected text from anywhere?

[Aprilgogo 0]

Hi,

The idea is this: once the mouse selects some text, the script gets a notification and then sends a Ctrl-C to copy it.

Usually a mouse can select some text in 2 ways: 1. hold down left button and drag. 2. double-click or triple-click some text. So the questions are:

1. How do I know if some texts are selected? The only way I can figure out is to write a callback function of a message like MOUSE_SECONDARY_UP, and then tests whether a text is selected in the foreground window.

2. How can I get the selected if I know some texts are selected? I tried the following two ways:

a. Use ControlCommand ( "title", "text", controlID, "GetSelected"). But this seems to only work on an Edit. I.e. If I select some text in a Firefox window, the function does not work.

b. Use _GUICtrlEdit_GetSel(). This works only on Edit too. BTW, the function returns only the starting/end position of selected text, how can I know the content of the selected text?

Thank you in advance!

[MrCreatoR 72]

As you mentioned, you can check if mouse was released, and then just check selected text like this:

MsgBox(64, "Results", "There is text selected? " & _IsSelectedText())

Func _IsSelectedText()
    Local $iRet = False
    Local $sOld_Clipboard_Data = ClipGet()
    
    ClipPut("")
    Send("^{Insert}")
    
    If ClipGet() <> "" Then $iRet = True
    ClipPut($sOld_Clipboard_Data)
    
    Return $iRet
EndFunc

Or check it in a loop every 'N' seconds.

[Aprilgogo 0]

Smart point, MrCreatoR! Thank you so much!

[Aprilgogo 0]

As you mentioned, you can check if mouse was released, and then just check selected text like this:

MsgBox(64, "Results", "There is text selected? " & _IsSelectedText())

Func _IsSelectedText()
    Local $iRet = False
    Local $sOld_Clipboard_Data = ClipGet()
    
    ClipPut("")
    Send("^{Insert}")
    
    If ClipGet() <> "" Then $iRet = True
    ClipPut($sOld_Clipboard_Data)
    
    Return $iRet
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Otherwise ClipGet() may get an empty string.

On my Pentium M 1.5G Hz CPU, a Sleep(1) will do. I don't know whether we should increase the sleep time on a lower CPU.

[MrCreatoR 72]

I think the better solution for slow CPU is waiting the data in clipboard and set a timer...

MsgBox(64, "Results", "There is text selected? " & @CRLF & @CRLF & _IsSelectedText())

Func _IsSelectedText($iSleep=10)
    Local $iRet = False
    Local $sOld_Clipboard_Data = ClipGet()
    
    ClipPut("")
    Send("^{Insert}")
    
    Local $sSelected_Data = ClipGet()
    Local $iTimer = TimerInit()
    
    While $sSelected_Data = "" And TimerDiff($iTimer) < $iSleep
        $sSelected_Data = ClipGet()
        Sleep(1)
    WEnd
    
    If $sSelected_Data <> "" Then $iRet = True
    ClipPut($sOld_Clipboard_Data)
    
    Return $iRet
EndFunc