Issue With text Selection and Copying from the iPhone's browser in iOS 8.4.1

By Osibote B.H., 26 August, 2015

Forum
iOS and iPadOS

Hello loved ones! I finally took the daring step of updating my iPhone's film ware from 7.1 to the latest 8.4.1--yeah, I did that two days ago.
Ever since I made this update, I've been carefully exploring the new film ware version for possible changes; and I must say I've found some not-so-appealing ones already. The one that really uneases me at the moment is the discovery that it now appears you can no longer select entire text all at once from your browser and then copy it in order to paste into a note or document app. Unlike in a previous iOS version such as 7.1 where, after you select a line of text and twist the rotor to "edit" you find the option that says "select all", here, it seems you can now only select on a line-by-line basis, copy this selection to the clipboard and then pate what you have managed to copy into an app of your choice.
I don't know if anyone else has observed this and is, just as I am, uncomfortable with it. And if someone has had the same issue, does anyone know of a remedy?
Thanks in advance for your helpful responses!

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Comments

By TheBlindDragon on Tuesday, August 25, 2015 - 05:39

You should try a four finger triple tap on your screen Voiceover will say the text and then copied to pasteboard.
I hope this helps.

By Osibote B.H. on Tuesday, August 25, 2015 - 05:39

In reply to by TheBlindDragon

Thanks so much Maria for your input.
Well, the gesture you tried describing is actually tapping the screen four times with three fingers, and that gesture enables VoiceOver to copy the last spoken text to the paste board. But that only copies the last spoken text and this last spoken text might be a character, a word, a line or just a phrase, depending on what VoiceOver speaks last before one issues the four-time tap with three fingers; This does not refer to an entire block of text on the screen at a time.
The control feature I referred to as available in iOS 7.1 but apparently missing in this 8.4.1 version is such that, if, for instance you open in Safari a web site containing an article, in iOS 7.1, you could select the entire screen by twisting your rotor to "lines" and then performing a pinch-out gesture which selects the particular line of text that has the focus of VoiceOver. After doing this, you twist the rotor again to access an "edit" feature which becomes available as a result of the pinch-out line selection operation you just performed. Once you have accessed this "edit" feature with the rotor, you move vertically with one finger through the edit options, among which you find the option that says "select all". If you choose this "select all" option,the entire screen, not just a line, is selected--just like issuing control+A on a PC. Having activated the "select all" function, you then move futher on to choose "copy", which puts the entire screen of text on the clipboard, which you can then paste in a note editor app. Now, it's this "Select all" option I have observed to be missing in iOS 8.4.1. The implication in this new version is that, if you perform a pinch-out gesture on a line of text, that line is selected, and when you twist the rotor settings to access "edit", the options you only find are: "define", "replace", and "copy". And if you choose "copy", what is copied is just the line you selected. This, Maria, is what I find unsettling!

By TheBlindDragon on Tuesday, August 25, 2015 - 05:39

If you have a braille display you can try doing the select all command.