Selecting text in an element (akin to highlighting with your mouse)

Question

I would like to have users click a link, then it selects the HTML text in another element (not an input).

By \"select\" I mean the same way you would select

Answer 1

Jason's code can not be used for elements inside an iframe (as the scope differs from window and document). I fixed that problem and I modified it in order to be used as any other jQuery plugin (chainable):

Example 1: Selection of all text inside < code > tags with single click and add class "selected":

$(function() {
    $("code").click(function() {
        $(this).selText().addClass("selected");
    });
});

Example 2: On button click, select an element inside an Iframe:

$(function() {
    $("button").click(function() {
        $("iframe").contents().find("#selectme").selText();
    });
});

Note: remember that the iframe source should reside in the same domain to prevent security errors.

jQuery Plugin:

jQuery.fn.selText = function() {
    var obj = this[0];
    if ($.browser.msie) {
        var range = obj.offsetParent.createTextRange();
        range.moveToElementText(obj);
        range.select();
    } else if ($.browser.mozilla || $.browser.opera) {
        var selection = obj.ownerDocument.defaultView.getSelection();
        var range = obj.ownerDocument.createRange();
        range.selectNodeContents(obj);
        selection.removeAllRanges();
        selection.addRange(range);
    } else if ($.browser.safari) {
        var selection = obj.ownerDocument.defaultView.getSelection();
        selection.setBaseAndExtent(obj, 0, obj, 1);
    }
    return this;
}

I tested it in IE8, Firefox, Opera, Safari, Chrome (current versions). I'm not sure if it works in older IE versions (sincerely I don't care).