The following function will do it in all major browsers:
function placeCaretAtEnd(el) {
el.focus();
if (typeof window.getSelection != "undefined"
&& typeof document.createRange != "undefined") {
var range = document.createRange();
range.selectNodeContents(el);
range.collapse(false);
var sel = window.getSelection();
sel.removeAllRanges();
sel.addRange(range);
} else if (typeof document.body.createTextRange != "undefined") {
var textRange = document.body.createTextRange();
textRange.moveToElementText(el);
textRange.collapse(false);
textRange.select();
}
}
placeCaretAtEnd( document.querySelector('p') );
p{ padding:.5em; border:1px solid black; }
<p contentEditable>foo bar </p>
Placing the caret at the start is almost identical: it just requires changing the Boolean passed into the calls to collapse()
. Here's an example that creates functions for placing the caret at the start and at the end:
function createCaretPlacer(atStart) {
return function(el) {
el.focus();
if (typeof window.getSelection != "undefined"
&& typeof document.createRange != "undefined") {
var range = document.createRange();
range.selectNodeContents(el);
range.collapse(atStart);
var sel = window.getSelection();
sel.removeAllRanges();
sel.addRange(range);
} else if (typeof document.body.createTextRange != "undefined") {
var textRange = document.body.createTextRange();
textRange.moveToElementText(el);
textRange.collapse(atStart);
textRange.select();
}
};
}
var placeCaretAtStart = createCaretPlacer(true);
var placeCaretAtEnd = createCaretPlacer(false);
Unfortunately Tim's excellent answer worked for me only for placing at the end, for placing at the start I had to modify it slightly.
function setCaret(target, isStart) {
const range = document.createRange();
const sel = window.getSelection();
if (isStart){
const newText = document.createTextNode('');
target.appendChild(newText);
range.setStart(target.childNodes[0], 0);
}
else {
range.selectNodeContents(target);
}
range.collapse(isStart);
sel.removeAllRanges();
sel.addRange(range);
target.focus();
target.select();
}
Not sure though if focus()
and select()
are actually needed.
This (live) example shows a short simple function, setCaretAtStartEnd
, which takes two arguments; A (editable) node to place the caret at & a Boolean indicating where to place it (start or end of the node)
const editableElm = document.querySelector('[contenteditable]');
document.querySelectorAll('button').forEach((elm, idx) =>
elm.addEventListener('click', () => {
editableElm.focus()
setCaretAtStartEnd(editableElm, idx)
})
)
function setCaretAtStartEnd( node, atEnd ){
const sel = document.getSelection();
node = node.firstChild;
if( sel.rangeCount ){
['Start', 'End'].forEach(pos =>
sel.getRangeAt(0)["set" + pos](node, atEnd ? node.length : 0)
)
}
}
[contenteditable]{ padding:5px; border:1px solid; }
<h1 contenteditable>Place the caret anywhere</h1>
<br>
<button>Move caret to start</button>
<button>Move caret to end</button>
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