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Most of the time, copying and pasting is easy and anyone can do it. However, sometimes you need how to Copy and Paste on Sites that doesn’t let you. For security reasons, most bank and financial websites don’t let users copy text to the clipboard using the mouse or a keyboard shortcut.
For example, we recently used Grow, a popular stock-trading website that doesn’t let me copy anything to the clipboard. It’s not the only one, though. Every once in a while, we all come across sites that disable the right-click menu so that users can’t copy small bits of text. A simple browser extension would be a good way to copy and paste text on websites that don’t let you.
How to Copy and Paste on Sites
Disable JavaScript in your Browser
- Click on the three-dot icon next to your Chrome profile pic in the top-right corner.
- Select the Settings option in the drop-down menu.
- Select the “Security and Privacy” option from the list of settings.
- Open the “Site settings” menu.
- Scroll down to the bottom of the page and click on JavaScript.
- Click on the “Add” button to block a website from using JavaScript.
- Enter the URL of the website where you want to disable JavaScript into the pop-up window and click the “Add” button.
Copy Content from Source Code
- Right-click anywhere on the website to open a drop-down list. Select “View Page Source” from that list, which opens the HTML code of the website.
- Scroll down to find the text you want to copy and copy it from here. The source code can be full of syntax that is hard to understand if you’re not a programmer. Do not get overwhelmed, as the plain text is always displayed in white or black, depending on the theme of your browser.
- Even though you can copy a section of text from the page source directly, copying multiple sections or the article will take ages. To speed it up, copy the entire HTML text on the view source page by right-clicking and selecting “Select All” and “Copy.”
- Head over to an HTML-to-text conversion website. Paste all the copied HTML text in the HTML tab and click the “Clean” button to get rid of all the unnecessary code that includes JavaScript or CSS elements.
- Switch to the “Word Editor” tab and to easily copy the text you want without any restrictions.
Print to PDF
- Go to the webpage you want to print and select the options menu by clicking on the three-dot icon. From the drop-down menu, select “Print.” An easier way to do this is to use the CTRL + P shortcut on Windows and + P on Mac.
- A pop-up window will appear on the screen asking your printing preferences. You can copy the text of that article directly from this pop-up window.
- If you want to download the PDF file and access it offline, click on the “Save” button, and the file will be downloaded for offline viewing.
Browser Extensions
- Head to the Chrome store and add the Enable Right-Click extension to your browser.
- Click the Extension button below the navigation buttons on your browser. Select the “Enable Right Click for Google Chrome” extension to activate it.
- You should be able to right-click on websites that don’t allow it without disabling the JavaScript.
Keep it Legal
You can copy anything from the public domain or from your own site. Do not take information that belongs to other people without their permission. Plagiarizing and stealing photos, graphics, and text is illegal and can lead to serious legal consequences.
One common reason to copy website content is to save it or move it to a new location. For instance, you may have written an article or been interviewed by a website and want to keep track of that information for a portfolio or for your own reference. Copying and pasting that information into a private place is fine, but sharing or reposting it without permission from the publisher is not a good idea.