I use FF27 with noscript, but solutions for Chrome are also welcome.
I use online chat for customer support when available, and I'd like to keep the chat transcript in case of a dispute with the provider. My credit card provider has such a chat interface, but has disabled copying the text – using javascript I assume (is there another way?). I have no knowledge of JS, but I notice that when I select text, the selection vanishes at the next event (such as click or after some time), I could find no way to bring up the context menu and ctrl-c has no effect. I'd like to circumvent that with minimal impact on other pages. I'd rather not install extensions.
FF used to have an option in the settings UI to disable certain javascript features, but it was removed. I've found about:config settings that disable JS overriding the context menu, and disable clipboard events – but both of those are global and the former will probably mess sites like Google Docs too much for my taste.
I haven't looked at what Chrome has to offer in terms of non-UI settings.
I couldn't find any fine-grained JS control on NoScript, but I assume it's possible to filter out the JS code that disables copying text.
Best Answer
In Chrome or any of the popular modern browsers, open Developer Tools by clicking F12 and then click on the magnifying glass icon (or equivalent icon in other browsers) to turn on inspect mode. Move to the content within the web page and point to the specific portion of text that you want to copy. The HTML code corresponding to the pointed area will appear in the docked Dev Tools window. Double click on the HTML code to copy the content you need.
Alternatively, you can save the page as a text file in Internet Explorer and then you can get just the text within the web page in the text file. In IE, choose File > Save As and in the dialog box that opens up, specify the Save as type as Text file.