# How-to select and copy textmsg in SDL-version of game?

**URL:** <https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/how-to-select-and-copy-textmsg-in-sdl-version-of-game/14304>\
**Category:** The Bunker\
**Created:** [September 28, 2017, 5:37am UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/how-to-select-and-copy-textmsg-in-sdl-version-of-game/14304 "2017-09-28T05:37:57Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![vivat](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discourse.cataclysmdda.org/vivat/32/98_2.png) [@vivat](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/vivat)\
**Post date:** [September 28, 2017, 5:37am UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/how-to-select-and-copy-textmsg-in-sdl-version-of-game/14304/1 "2017-09-28T05:37:57Z")

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Hi!  
when i run FAR cammander - i can select part of the screen by the edit-select(and after select) but in the CDDA i can not - there’s no such option in the menu in the head of the screen. maybe there is third-side program which CAN do copy of the text screen in the SDL text programs?

thanks.

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**Author:** ![PlasmaChroma](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discourse.cataclysmdda.org/plasmachroma/32/581_2.png) [@PlasmaChroma](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/PlasmaChroma)\
**Post date:** [September 28, 2017, 11:45am UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/how-to-select-and-copy-textmsg-in-sdl-version-of-game/14304/2 "2017-09-28T11:45:05Z")

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Simple answer, you likely can’t do this easily.

In SDL version what you are getting on screen is image content, the glyphs are cached and later output to SDL\_Rect.

To be able to copy from the window you’d have to do some kind of raw capture + OCR to get it back to pure text.

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**Author:** ![\_k1](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discourse.cataclysmdda.org/_k1/32/1335_2.png) [@\_k1](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/_k1)\
**Post date:** [September 28, 2017, 1:51pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/how-to-select-and-copy-textmsg-in-sdl-version-of-game/14304/3 "2017-09-28T13:51:39Z")

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Is it possible when you select ascii in tiles build?

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**Author:** ![vivat](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discourse.cataclysmdda.org/vivat/32/98_2.png) [@vivat](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/vivat)\
**Post date:** [September 28, 2017, 3:59pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/how-to-select-and-copy-textmsg-in-sdl-version-of-game/14304/4 "2017-09-28T15:59:13Z")

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[http://dev.narc.ro/cataclysm/jenkins-latest/Windows\_x64/Tiles/](http://dev.narc.ro/cataclysm/jenkins-latest/Windows_x64/Tiles/) - it is a SDL version?  
curses version can get me option to copy from the screen?

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**Author:** ![i2amroy](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discourse.cataclysmdda.org/i2amroy/32/909_2.png) [@i2amroy](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/i2amroy)\
**Post date:** [September 28, 2017, 5:24pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/how-to-select-and-copy-textmsg-in-sdl-version-of-game/14304/5 "2017-09-28T17:24:16Z")

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I believe so yeah. Tiles == SDL, ASCII == Curses.