Insert text at cursor in a content editable div
UPD: since ~2020 solution is obsoleted (despite it can work yet)
// <div contenteditable id="myeditable">
// const editable = document.getElementById('myeditable')
// editable.focus()
// document.execCommand('insertHTML', false, '<b>B</b>anana')
document.execCommand('insertText', false, 'banana')
- Get a Selection Object with
window.getSelection()
. - Use
Selection.getRangeAt(0).insertNode()
to add a textnode. If necessary, move the cursor position behind the added text with
Selection.modify()
. (Not standardized, but this feature is supported in Firefox, Chrome and Safari)function insertTextAtCursor(text) { let selection = window.getSelection(); let range = selection.getRangeAt(0); range.deleteContents(); let node = document.createTextNode(text); range.insertNode(node); for(let position = 0; position != text.length; position++) { selection.modify("move", "right", "character"); }; }
The following function will insert text at the caret position and delete the existing selection. It works in all the mainstream desktop browsers:
function insertTextAtCaret(text) {
var sel, range;
if (window.getSelection) {
sel = window.getSelection();
if (sel.getRangeAt && sel.rangeCount) {
range = sel.getRangeAt(0);
range.deleteContents();
range.insertNode( document.createTextNode(text) );
}
} else if (document.selection && document.selection.createRange) {
document.selection.createRange().text = text;
}
}
UPDATE
Based on comment, here's some code for saving and restoring the selection. Before displaying your context menu, you should store the return value of saveSelection
in a variable and then pass that variable into restoreSelection
to restore the selection after hiding the context menu and before inserting text.
function saveSelection() {
if (window.getSelection) {
sel = window.getSelection();
if (sel.getRangeAt && sel.rangeCount) {
return sel.getRangeAt(0);
}
} else if (document.selection && document.selection.createRange) {
return document.selection.createRange();
}
return null;
}
function restoreSelection(range) {
if (range) {
if (window.getSelection) {
sel = window.getSelection();
sel.removeAllRanges();
sel.addRange(range);
} else if (document.selection && range.select) {
range.select();
}
}
}