Internet Explorer is often decried as the worst browser for web developers, but IE8 actually offers a very nice set of developer tools. Here we’ll look at a unique way to use them to
edit the text on any webpage.
How to
edit text
in a webpage
IE8’s developer tools make it easy to make changes to a webpage and view them directly. Simply browse to the webpage of your choice, and press the F12 key on your keyboard. Alternately, you can click the Tools button, and select Developer tools from the list.
This opens the developer tools. To do our editing, we want to select the mouse button on the toolbar “Select Element by Click” tool.
Now, click on any spot of the webpage
in IE8 that you want to
edit. Here, let’s
edit the footer of Google.com. Notice it places a blue box around any element you hover over to make it easy to choose exactly what you want to
edit.
In the developer tools window, the element you selected before is now highlighted. Click the plus button beside that entry if the text you want to
edit is not visible.
Now, click the text you wish to change, and enter what you wish
in the box. For fun, we changed the copyright to say “©2010 Microsoft”.
Go back to IE to see the changes on the page!
You can also change a link on a page this way:
Or you can even change the text on a button:
Here’s our edited Google.com:
This may be fun for playing a trick on someone or simply for a funny screenshot, but it can be very useful, too. You could test how changes
in fontsize would change how a website looks, or see how a button would look with a different label. It can also be useful when taking screenshots. For instance, if I want to show a friend how to do something
in Gmail but don’t want to reveal my email address, I could
edit the text on the top right before I took the screenshot. Here I changed my Gmail address to
[email protected].
Please note that the changes will disappear when you reload the page. You can save your changes from the developer tools window, though, and reopen the page from your computer if you wish.
We have found this trick very helpful at times, and it can be very fun too! Enjoy it, and let us know how you used it to help you!
Similar Articles
Productive Geek Tips
Edit Webpage Text Areas
in Your Favorite Text EditorRemove Webpage Formatting or View the HTML Code When Copying
in FirefoxChange the Default Editor From Nano on Ubuntu LinuxShare Text & Images the Easy Way with JustPaste.itEditPad Lite – All Purpose Tabbed Text Editor
TouchFreeze Alternative
in AutoHotkey
The Icy Undertow Desktop
Windows Home Server – Backup to LAN
The Clear & Clean Desktop
Use This Bookmarklet to Easily Get Albums
Use AutoHotkey to Assign a Hotkey to a Specific Window
Latest Software Reviews
Tinyhacker Random Tips
Revo Uninstaller Pro
Registry Mechanic 9 for Windows
PC Tools Internet Security Suite 2010
PCmover Professional
Enable Check Box Selection
in Windows 7
OnlineOCR – Free OCR Service
Betting on the Blind Side, a Vanity Fair article
30 Minimal Logo Designs that Say More with Less
LEGO Digital Designer – Free
Create a Personal Website Quickly using Flavors.me