The main purpose of a TextRange object is to encapsulate that part of the document text that depends on the user having used the mouse to select a portion of text. A TextRange object can also encapsulate an insertion point in the text of a document.

An insertion point is encapsulated by creating a TextRange object that is of zero length.

A new TextRange object is instantiated with the createTextRange() method which can be applied to the following object types which can contain selectable text:

• BODY

• TextCell

• TEXTAREA

The TextCell and TEXTAREA objects are members of the Form Element category, sometimes called Input Elements.

When you have created a TextRange object, you can then manipulate its properties to select just that portion of text in the document that you want.

Once you have marked the text you want within the start and end points, you can replace the content of the TextRange with the pasteHTML() method to operate on the text in the document. However, there may be limitations on when and how you can do this depending on the extent of the TextRange object's boundaries.

Warnings:

• There are platform limitations to the TextRange object that mean it is only functional on the Windows platform within MSIE. This limits the audience for your ingenuity in using it, but within a captive environment, this capability can still be useful.

Inheritance chain:

Element object, Node object