While browsing the web you may come across a site that, to prevent someone from extrapolating text, programmatically prevents the use of the right button on the page. With this stratagem (applied through Javascript in most cases) the site "protects" itself by preventing someone from simply selecting the text and copying everything, while still allowing normal navigation on the site. This type of limitation could also be applied to an online document of any type (doc, PDF etc.), always for a form of protection. If the document or site where the right button is not usable is vital for our work or study, below we will find all the best methods to overcome the obstacle and obtain the text to be copied even in the presence of the block .
Copy text from sites that block copying
1) Printer method
The first method is very simple to apply and is just a click away (left): we can try to print the entire web page so that we can copy it by hand, select the text on the printout (in case of PDF prints) and overcome any type of block without problems. This method is simple, but some sites may block this feature too (the developer may be smarter than you!) Making it vain. To print a Web page or an online document with the right button block, simply press the Print button, present on all modern Web browsers (we can find it in the settings menu).
On some browsers (such as Google Chome and Mozilla Firefox) we can also press the key combination CTRL + P to start printing the web page.
The website will be printed and we can choose whether to have it in paper format or to save it on the PC in PDF format (much more convenient for copying the text).
If we are looking for a method to quickly print the web pages showing the block in PDF, we can rely on free extensions such as Web to PDF (Mozilla Firefox) or Save as PDF (Google Chrome).
2) Save page method
Another very simple method to copy text from sites that block copying is to save a folder or a file containing the entire Web page locally. In many cases the Javascript block is overcome using this method, but a good developer could block this too method to prevent copying of content.
To save the entire web page, open the tools menu and use the Save page as item .
Also in this case we will be able to use a keyboard shortcut to save the web page or the document, that is CTRL + S (provided that this shortcut is not already taken by an online text editor).
Web pages saved locally (often accompanied by the folder with all the contents in it) can be opened with any web browser, so as to check the content and check if it is actually possible to copy.
3) screenshot method + OCR
The first "foolproof" method of copying blocked text is to take real pictures of the page with the text, then use a character recognition program (OCR) to extrapolate it effectively.
In this specific case the Web developer can do little or nothing, since the method is very visual (what we actually see on the screen is always accessible to both extensions and programs).
READ ALSO: OCR Convert scanned sheets and PDFs into editable texts
To make screenshots of a web page we can use free extensions such as Awesome Screenshot Plus (for Mozilla Firefox) or Lightshot (for Google Chrome).
Just install one of the two extensions and start capturing the part of the screen where the text to be copied is present.
Alternatively we can always use a free program on Windows to capture the portion of the screen with the text.
Among all the programs available, we recommend trying Greenshot, available here -> Greenshot .
Obtained the image with the text to copy let's get a program like FreeOCR, available here -> FreeOCR .
Once downloaded, just start the program, select the Italian language in Language OCR, open the screenshot file and finally press on OCR .
The text contained in the image will be read and you can copy it to the right part of the program.
If we are looking for other free OCR programs, simply download one of the ones listed below:
- ABBYY FineReader
- OCRTools
- Capture2Text
- Gtext
4) Javascript method (advanced)
The last method we recommend to copy text from sites that do not allow it allows you to block Javascript, that is the language used to introduce this type of block at the text level (in most cases). The developer can intervene on this method by making the page text read "linked" to the presence of Javascript or by changing the programming language to avoid blocking, however, making the page heavier and obtaining errors in the compilation of the page; so this is a fairly safe method if the developer makes extensive use of Javascript. If the right mouse click doesn't work on a particular page, we can try to disable Javascript to see if the button "unlocks".
On Google Chrome simply visit the offending page, press the padlock button on the left of the address bar and then click on Javascript -> Always block on this site .
By reloading the page we will notice that the right button will be functional again, thus allowing the selection and copying of the content.
On Mozilla Firefox instead we can block Javascript only by using the free extension NJS, available here -> NJS .
This extension adds a small indicator to the address bar (top right) and allows you to quickly disable and enable Javascript. When the extension is green Javascript is active (default setting), while when the button is red Javascript is disabled, therefore the right mouse button should return to work correctly.
