CSS disable text selection

Question

Currently, I have put this in the body tag to disable text selections:

body {
  -webkit-user-select: none;
  -moz-user-select: none;
  -ms-user-select: none;
  user-select: none;
}

However, my input and textarea boxes are now unselectable. How can I only make these input elements selectable and the rest unselectable?

Answer 1

Don't apply these properties to the whole body. Move them to a class and apply that class to the elements you want to disable select:

.disable-select {
  -webkit-user-select: none;  
  -moz-user-select: none;    
  -ms-user-select: none;      
  user-select: none;
}

Answer 2

You could also disable user select on all elements:

* {
    -webkit-touch-callout:none;
    -webkit-user-select:none;
    -moz-user-select:none;
    -ms-user-select:none;
    user-select:none;
}

And than enable it on the elements you do want the user to be able to select:

input, textarea /*.contenteditable?*/ {
    -webkit-touch-callout:default;
    -webkit-user-select:text;
    -moz-user-select:text;
    -ms-user-select:text;
    user-select:text;
}

Answer 3

Just wanted to summarize everything:

.unselectable {
  -webkit-touch-callout: none;
  -webkit-user-select: none;
  -khtml-user-select: none;
  -moz-user-select: none;
  -ms-user-select: none;
  user-select: none;
}

<div class="unselectable" unselectable="yes" onselectstart="return false;"/>

Answer 4

::selection,::moz-selection {color:currentColor;background:transparent}

Answer 5

you can disable all selection

.disable-all{-webkit-touch-callout: none;  -webkit-user-select: none;-khtml-user-select: none;-moz-user-select: none;-ms-user-select: none;user-select: none;}

now you can enable input and text-area enable

input, textarea{
-webkit-touch-callout:default;
-webkit-user-select:text;
-khtml-user-select: text;
-moz-user-select:text;
-ms-user-select:text;
user-select:text;}

Answer 6

Use a wild card selector * for this purpose.

#div * { /* Narrowing, to specific elements, like  input, textarea is PREFFERED */
 -webkit-user-select: none;  
  -moz-user-select: none;    
  -ms-user-select: none;      
  user-select: none;
}

Now, every element inside a div with id div will have no selection.

Demo