Computer: Browsing: Text
Cut-Paste-Auto Scroll   (+2, -1)  [vote for, against]
And now one can send an excerpt though the URL.


I often send my friends sections or lines from a specific
html page on the net. These are often embedded
within a huge contiguous text passed HTML page.
Now i could cut the text and send it, but that would
loose the context and they might now understand it.
I would send them the selection and also the link but
that would be confusing. So i got thinking about a
solution. Mind you I am not talking about the # tag
tag.

Here is what i propose.

Here is an random link

http://rajatkhungar.rediffblogs.com/2004_27_06_raj
atkhungar_archive.html

I want my friend to see The pasage starting with "At
one stage, I was appointed as the ..." for reasons
personal to me.

This is what should happen. Simulation

http://rajatkhungar.rediffblogs.com/2004_27_06_raj
atkhungar_archive.html=0

the 0 indicates one is at the top of the page.. as i
scroll the number goes up 1,2,3-etc. so this segment
might be something like

http://rajatkhungar.rediffblogs.com/2004_27_06_raj
atkhungar_archive.html=32

32 meaning line 32. Now i can cut and paste and
send the article. at the other end the person can
read what i highlighted and also scroll up and down to
put it in perspective.
-- nomadic_wonderer, Jul 13 2004

Example http://www.w3.org/T.../sgmltut.html#h-3.2
Fragment indicator is the "#h-3.2" [angel, Oct 05 2004]

rajat khungar on slideshare. That you? https://www.slideshare.net/RajatKhungar1
[pashute, Jun 08 2023]

Google hilite Cut-Paste-Auto_20Sc...potential%20target.
In chrome you right mouse button on marked section and "Copy link to highlight". [pashute, Jun 08 2023]

There already is a syntax in URL's to do this using "#" between the base URL and the name of the target. (In fact, the halfbakery uses this extensively).

However, to work it requires the author of the page put a named tag at each potential target. We had a different idea here about solving that part of the problem, but I can't find it.
-- krelnik, Jul 13 2004


You want all web pages to have arbitrarily small indicated fragments. See my (fairly random) link; the part after the hash is the fragment indicator, which determines where on the target page the link will land
-- angel, Jul 13 2004


[krelnik] when i said href tag I was meaning # tag. Sorry for the slip-up.
-- nomadic_wonderer, Jul 13 2004


Talking about line numbers in an HTML document doesn't make sense.

(I'm guessing that you've anticipated that reaction and used <br> to manually break the lines in your own idea posting. But, perhaps under the weight of this annotation, the idea column is slightly squished in my browser, so that your first line is slightly too long, and, in the beginning, "specific" and, in the end, "to" have unintended lines on their own. It's ugly. Don't do this.)

A similar idea that has been proposed that I like much better allows a person to embed a text search string in an URL, automating the phrase "go there, and then search for ....".
-- jutta, Jul 13 2004


[jutta] Yes, that sounds like the idea I was trying to find, but I think it has been deleted.
-- krelnik, Jul 13 2004


some browsers have a 'highight' function in the context menu. is it possible to communicate to a friend's browser that highlighting so they can quickly see it highlighted in their browser as well? i don't know if it's currently possible, but it mimics how you might share long paper document with someone, so it seems intuitive. sorry for the poor explanation, 5 guinness...
-- xclamp, Jul 14 2004


[Jutta] will keep your comments in mind.
-- nomadic_wonderer, Jul 14 2004


How about <quote href = 'http: //rajatkhungar. reiffblogs.com
/2004_27_06 _ rajatkhungar_archive.html=32' quotebegin="At one stage" quoteend = "appointed as the">Take a look at this</quote>

It would be seen in email as [plaintext] Take a look at this: [/plaintext]
[quotebox] ... the actual quoted text here [/quotebox]

Clicking on it opens the browser with the text selected by using a "regular expression". If less than 6 words are selected, you can use an optional [quote=] attribute instead of quotestart= and quoteend=

Or to make it even simpler, always use quote= like this:
quote= '*whatever you want *...*however you want to finish*' where if you have a SOMETHING...SOMETHING that will be the char you use to delimit. Otherwise its exact text...
-- pashute, Mar 17 2010


I'm 99% sure there is a Firefox addon that does exactly as you propose. It may also be available as a browser-independent third-party webservice, and if it isn't, by gum it should be.

By the latter, I mean: You go to marksend.com, then open the URL of the page you wish to cite. It opens inside a frame and you highlight the text, images, other elements you wish to refer to your friend. A widget gives you a short URL you can email, which directs your friend to marksend and opens the relevant URL, and the highlighting.
-- BunsenHoneydew, Mar 19 2010


mmm... fractional or percentage notation: for completeness there should be an x-axis notation as well as y.
-- FlyingToaster, Mar 19 2010


simply find the first word, count how many times it appears on the page and which entry that is, then find the last word and check the same. In your example:

excerpts.com? href= rajatkhungar . rediffblogs.com /2004_27_06_ rajatkhungar_ archive.html & start=At & count=7

Google has a similar service with the keyword hilite, but it needs the whole text that you want to highlight in the URL. Like [pashute] wrote in 2010. Oh, that's me!!

Giving link to google hilite.
-- pashute, Jun 08 2023


You right mouse button on marked text in chrome, and choose "copy link to highlight".

The result is something like this for text in [krelnik]' anno:

https:// www.halfbakery.com/ idea /Cut-Paste -Auto_20Scroll #: ~:text=to%20 work%20 it%20 requires%20 the%20 author%20 of%20 the%20 page%20 put%20 a%20 named%20 tag%20 at%20each%20 potential%20 target.

C link.
-- pashute, Jun 08 2023



random, halfbakery