replace selected text (Firefox)

March 6th, 2008. Tagged: JavaScript, writing

A quick function to replace the selected text (in Firefox). Accepts:

  • string to replace the selection, or
  • callback function that takes the selected text and returns a string to replace the selection
function replaceSelection(t) {
  if (typeof t === 'function') {
    t = t(window.getSelection().toString());
  }
  var range = window.getSelection().getRangeAt(0);
  range.deleteContents();
  range.insertNode(document.createTextNode(t));
}

Usage:

1. Replace selected text with "dude"
replaceSelection('dude');
2. Uppercase the selected text
replaceSelection(function(s){return s.toUpperCase()});
3. Lowercase the selected text
replaceSelection(function(s){return s.toLowerCase()});

Luckily I'm so close (and yet so far) to finishing this book, otherwise I won't be able to help myself but create a whole toolbar of bookmarklets for "power" Google doc users...

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