AllowCopy

AllowCopy User Manual

Installation

1. Visit Firefox Add-ons
2. Click Add to Firefox and confirm the permissions
3. Pin the extension icon to your toolbar for quick access

How It Works

Some pages turn copying off: the text you selected will not copy, what you paste comes with a copyright notice stapled to it, the right-click menu never appears, or the text will not even select. AllowCopy puts things back the way they were — select, press the shortcut or right-click, copy, exactly as the browser was meant to behave.

It only handles the text you have already selected. It does not grab whole pages, and it does not do bulk exports.

Copying Text

Three ways, all doing the same thing, so reach for whichever comes naturally. Each has its own switch on the home screen, so you can keep only the one you like (though they cannot all be off):

• Keyboard shortcut (on by default) — select the text and press Alt+C
• Right-click menu (on by default) — right-click the selection and choose Copy selected text
• Copy button (off by default) — turn it on and a copy button appears at the top right of whatever you select; click it

Once the copy goes through, a short message appears in the bottom-right corner of the page confirming it reached your clipboard. If the page quietly appends a copyright footer while you copy, AllowCopy blocks it, so what you paste is exactly what you selected.

The shortcut can be changed to whatever suits you: click the key on the Keyboard shortcut row of the home screen to open your browser's extension shortcuts page. In Firefox, open about:addons, click the gear icon and choose Manage Extension Shortcuts.

When Text Will Not Select or the Right-Click Menu Will Not Open

Some pages block text selection and the right-click menu together, and the extension's menu item disappears along with them.

Press the shortcut once with nothing selected. Selecting, right-clicking and copying all come back on that page, and you can select and copy as usual. The shortcut comes from the browser itself, so no page can take it away — which is why it ships on.

With Copy button turned on, every page you open is restored the moment it loads, so there is nothing to press.

Firefox offers a shortcut of its own: hold Shift while right-clicking, and the browser's own menu opens directly.

The Copy Button and Site Access

The copy button is the one feature that needs access to sites: it has to stand by on every page you open in order to appear when you select something.

Turning the switch on asks you for access to all sites there and then, and the button works only once you allow it. Decline and the button does not appear, and the switch does not remember the attempt. Turning the switch off stops it; to withdraw the access itself, use your browser's extension permission settings.

Per-Copy Limit

AllowCopy sorts each selection into one of two bands by size:

• Ordinary length — copied straight away. Everyday quotes, snippets and contact details all land here
• Long passages — Pro, and Long selections must also be switched on under Features. Without both, only the opening part is copied and you are told so

Settings

General

• Language — Follow System / English / 简体中文 / 日本語
• Theme — Follow System / Light / Dark

Features

• Long selections (Pro) — takes a long passage whole instead of stopping partway. Off by default, so switch it on yourself after upgrading
• Confirm each copy on the page — turn it off and successful copies stay quiet. Copies that fail or get shortened are always reported, whatever this is set to
• Append the source URL — adds the page address after the copied text, so the source stays with the quote

Storage

Once your own storage is set up, all of the options above follow you across your devices.

What It Does Not Do

AllowCopy does not handle:

• Elements you cannot select, such as button labels, tags, and text generated by styling
• Tooltip text that only appears on hover
• Text inside images and canvases — AllowCopy does no text recognition
• Selections inside input boxes and text areas. That content is yours to begin with, and your browser's own copy has always worked there

FAQ

There is no AllowCopy item in the right-click menu

• The item only appears when text is selected. Select first, then right-click
• If even the browser's own menu will not open, press the shortcut once with nothing selected and the menu comes back

The home screen says the shortcut is unassigned, or pressing it does nothing

• Browsers assign no key when another extension has claimed the same one, and they cannot tell when a system-wide hotkey has taken it. Click that row to open your browser's shortcuts page and pick another combination

It says the page does not allow extensions to run

• Browser built-in pages, extension store pages and the PDF viewer let no extension run, so copying is not possible there

What I copied was cut short

• The selection fell into the long-passage band. Upgrade to Pro, then switch on Long selections under Features to take it whole

The copy button does not appear

• Check that Copy button is switched on the home screen and that site access has been granted
• It never appears over a selection inside an input box or text area — use your browser's own copy there