I have a contenteditable div where I need to insert text at the caret position,

This can be easily done in IE by document.selection.createRange().text = "banana"

Is there a similar way of implementing this in Firefox/Chrome?

(I know a solution exists here , but it can't be used in contenteditable div, and looks clumsy)

Thank you!

I have a contenteditable div where I need to insert text at the caret position,

This can be easily done in IE by document.selection.createRange().text = "banana"

Is there a similar way of implementing this in Firefox/Chrome?

(I know a solution exists here , but it can't be used in contenteditable div, and looks clumsy)

Thank you!

• javascript
• contenteditable

• If you wish to insert html at cursor, see stackoverflow.com/questions/6690752/… – Kes115 Commented Aug 17, 2016 at 14:49

7 Answers 7

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();
        }
    }
}

1. Get a Selection Object with window.getSelection().
2. Use Selection.getRangeAt(0).insertNode() to add a textnode.

3. 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");
       };
   }
   

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')

I have used next code to insert icons in chat msg

<div class="chat-msg-text" id="chat_message_text" contenteditable="true"></div>

<script>
var lastCaretPos = 0;
var parentNode;
var range;
var selection;

$(function(){
    $('#chat_message_text').focus();

    $('#chat_message_text').on('keyup mouseup',function (e){
        selection = window.getSelection();
        range = selection.getRangeAt(0);
        parentNode = range.commonAncestorContainer.parentNode;
    });
})

function insertTextAtCursor(text) { 

    if($(parentNode).parents().is('#chat_message_text') || $(parentNode).is('#chat_message_text') )
    {
        var span = document.createElement('span');              
        span.innerHTML=text;

        range.deleteContents();        
        range.insertNode(span);  
        //cursor at the last with this
        range.collapse(false);
        selection.removeAllRanges();
        selection.addRange(range);

    }
    else
    {
        msg_text = $("#chat_message_text").html()
        $("#chat_message_text").html(text+msg_text).focus()                 
    }
}

</script>

Pasting plain text can be handled with the following code.

const editorEle = document.getElementById('editor');

// Handle the `paste` event
editorEle.addEventListener('paste', function (e) {
    // Prevent the default action
    e.preventDefault();

    // Get the copied text from the clipboard
    const text = e.clipboardData
        ? (e.originalEvent || e).clipboardData.getData('text/plain')
        : // For IE
        window.clipboardData
        ? window.clipboardData.getData('Text')
        : '';

    if (document.queryCommandSupported('insertText')) {
        document.execCommand('insertText', false, text);
    } else {
        // Insert text at the current position of caret
        const range = document.getSelection().getRangeAt(0);
        range.deleteContents();

        const textNode = document.createTextNode(text);
        range.insertNode(textNode);
        range.selectNodeContents(textNode);
        range.collapse(false);

        const selection = window.getSelection();
        selection.removeAllRanges();
        selection.addRange(range);
    }
});

If you are working with rich editors (like DraftJs) but have no access to their APIs (e.g. modifying from an extension), these are the solutions I've found:

• Dispatching a beforeinput event, this is the recommended way, and most editors support

target.dispatchEvent(new InputEvent("beforeinput", {
    inputType: "insertText",
    data: text,
    bubbles: true,
    cancelable: true
}))

• Dispatching a paste event

const data = new DataTransfer();
data.setData(
    'text/plain',
    text
);
target.dispatchEvent(new ClipboardEvent("paste", {
    dataType: "text/plain",
    data: text,
    bubbles: true,
    clipboardData: data,
    cancelable: true
}));

This last one uses 2 different methods:

• Using data and dataType properties. This one works in Firefox
• Using clipboardData property. Which works in Chrome but not in Firefox? https://github.com/facebook/draft-js/issues/616#issuecomment-426047799 . Though It's supposed to work in Firefox, maybe I don't know how to use it or there's a bug.

If you want to replace all existing text, you have to select it first

function selectTargetText(target) {
    const selection = window.getSelection();
    const range = document.createRange();
    range.selectNodeContents(target);
    selection.removeAllRanges();
    selection.addRange(range);
}

selectTargetText(target)

// wait for selection before dispatching the `beforeinput` event
document.addEventListener("selectionchange",()=>{
    target.dispatchEvent(new InputEvent("beforeinput", {
        inputType: "insertText",
        data: text,
        bubbles: true,
        cancelable: true
    }))
},{once: true})

just an easier method with jquery:

copy the entire content of the div

var oldhtml=$('#elementID').html();

var tobejoined='<span>hii</span>';

//element with new html would be

$('#elementID').html(oldhtml+tobejoined);

simple!