Selecting text in an OS interface #

Dragging across a notification should interact with the desktop, not leave a trail of highlighted words. Dragging across terminal output should still let you copy it. We treat shell controls and application content differently.

Shell controls don't select text #

The page defaults to user-select: none. That covers notifications, system popups, the dock, canvas tools, layout controls, search result labels, and other shell surfaces, including controls moved onto the canvas.

Window title bars and the Notes menu stay non-selectable. Settings also opts out: its descriptions and category labels are part of the system interface. Buttons, labels, select controls, and disclosure summaries explicitly keep that behavior even inside an app's content area.

This doesn't disable clicks, keyboard focus, or text entry. It suppresses browser text highlighting; it isn't a copy-protection mechanism.

App content can select text #

The window body explicitly enables user-select: text. Terminal output, browser preview content, and ordinary app text can therefore be selected. Inputs, textareas, and editable elements also opt in, including shell search and the gesture editor's app picker. Notes still supports selecting and editing its document.

Selection tools are a separate interaction. With window lasso, rectangle selection, or Change layout active, ordinary app bodies become inert so a drag selects or moves work instead of editing its contents. Active dragging also temporarily suppresses text selection. Returning to ordinary interaction restores the content's selection behavior.

Keep the boundary when adding UI #

New shell surfaces inherit the default. New app content belongs inside the window body; app-specific toolbars can opt out locally, as the Notes menu does. Editable fields should keep their explicit exception. Avoid blanket pointer-event or selection-event cancellation, which would interfere with the input behavior we're preserving.

index.css owns the global policy and field exceptions. App.module.css owns window-body, title-bar, menu, and drag rules; Settings.module.css keeps Settings non-selectable. App.tsx handles inert app content during canvas selection and layout editing.