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copygoogle-docs

Is it possible to force a copy of a protected Google doc?


Google docs can “lock” a page so that it’s impossible to copy from its text. This seems wrong to me; shouldn't a computer’s ability to copy and paste be intrinsic? I can’t understand how a webpage can “overstep” its authority and prevent my computer from doing something totally natural. It seems that if I can be served and display text that I should be able to copy it.

How does this webpage prevent my machine from copying?


Solution

  • As of the 10th of May, 2018, disabling JavaScript will not load the document at all, and changing the 'edit' to 'preview' also no longer works.

    I have found that if you click on the three dots and go to: More Tools > Developer Tools and then click on console, and type in document.body.innerText, it loads the entire document as a text file, so that you can copy to your heart's content.