A few weeks ago we discussed an app for Android where you can select and copy unselectable text to the clipboard. We need such features on our smartphones, but if you think about it, we need a similar feature on our Windows computers. Say you want to copy an error message from a pop-up in Windows or text from an image? Well, we’ve evolved to Windows 10 and the basic functionality is still limited.
If only you could copy everything you bookmark | shutter
But as Steve Jobs said, “There is an app for that” and luckily, in this case, there are quite a few of them where you can try to select and copy non-selectable text on Windows. 10. Let’s take a look at them.
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Textify is the first application you should install on your Windows computer to copy unselectable text to the clipboard. This application is under 250 KB and is a portable .exe file that you can extract to any location on your computer and run it. The first time you launch Textify, it will ask you for the hotkey that you want to use to call the Textify module, to select the non-selectable text(s). I like to use a combination of Shift with Middle Mouse Button, but you can select and make another selection.
Now to copy a non-selectable text just use the hotkey configured in the Textify app and the field will be highlighted and you will get a field-like textbox that you can click on right enter and select option Copy. You can also use hotkey Ctrl+C after the text is selected.
The good thing about the app is that it’s only 223 Kbs, but it only works in some cases like selecting text from Windows dialogs or other places where you can’t highlight and copy. It fails in cases where you need to select text from images and web pages where you cannot copy the text. Textify even fails when you have to select text from the Start Menu. If you want to include anything and everything, you might want to move on to the second app we’ll discuss next.
Capture2Text
Capture2Text is an application that will solve everything related to copying non-selectable text on Android. The only thing that I should warn you about is that the application is over 200 MB in size and a bit complicated to use for beginners. Also, it will recognize text from anywhere and everywhere.
Capture2Text is an open source application that uses OCR (Optical Character Recognition) technique to quickly convert text from part of the screen and automatically save it to the clipboard. In essence, this application is portable and you just need to run the .exe file from the path where you extracted the contents of the downloaded ZIP file. The application will start minimized in the system tray, and the first step you need to do is to configure the hotkeys of the application.
Configure the hotkeys as you like and whenever you need to copy non-selectable text just launch Capture2Text and it will give you a box where you need to draw over the text you want to copy. Once you’ve selected the text, just use the end hotkey and the text will be copied to the clipboard for you to paste.
Cool Tip: You can choose the option Show pop-ups
The app works in multiple languages and has advanced settings that you can explore to expand the app’s features. However, it works out of the box for users who simply copy text to the clipboard and move on.
Conclusion
So here are the top two apps that will cover every aspect when it comes to copying unselectable text on Windows. However, if you want alternatives, you can try apps like GetWindowText and ShoWin. They haven’t been updated in a long time but have worked for Windows 7 and I believe they will work on Windows 10 as well.
ALSO READ: How to copy text from Windows, Windows Explorer, etc error message box using GetWindowText
Categories: How to
Source: thpttranhungdao.edu.vn/en/
