This is one of those things in Windows I have NEVER been able to get the hang of and it drives me crazy. I'm sure at one point I used to do it.
 
You know when you click in a browser's URL field or the directory path field in Explorer and it highlights the whole field? Well then sometimes you might click again and it deselects it so you want to highlight the whole thing again. Hopefully without having to drag across the thing, or without having to click outside the field and click in it again. . I swear that at some point you used to be able totriple click to do it. Double clicking just highlights individual words. If I triple click randomly around the field then sometimes it works. Sometimes. But then I can't do it again, and I've never been able to work out exactly where I triple clicked to make it work.
 
This is not that much of a big deal of course, but nonetheless it bugs me. Windows can be so sloppy and clumsy at times. Why doesn't crap like this just work easily and consistently?

My way of doin' it...
 
Select a directory (to any depth) via Explorers left pane. At the top of Explorer, the current path will be shown with little black triangles separating directories. While in this 'triangle' mode (shall we call it?), right click the address/path window to copy it.
 
If you left click on the address/path window first, it will be turned into text and the right-click context menu will change on you and not be as handy.

Godling
My way of doin' it...
 
Select a directory (to any depth) via Explorers left pane. At the top of Explorer, the current path will be shown with little black triangles separating directories. While in this 'triangle' mode (shall we call it?), right click the address/path window to copy it.
 
If you left click on the address/path window first, it will be turned into text and the right-click context menu will change on you and not be as handy.

Yeah I'm aware you can right click on the "triangle mode" to copy the address, but sometimes you do end up with the conventional directory path in the field for one reason or another (e.g. you wish to view the full path). I also know that you can right click on this and choose "select all," but I guess it's just annoying me that sometimes I can triple click on the address to select it all and sometimes it doesn't work. I'm sure there was a time at which this did work consistently, maybe in some earlier version of Windows (I'm using 8.1). Really, I'm just punishing myself since there are other ways to select it, but I'm one of those people who can't let something go when it's bugging him....

I might be misinterpreting what you mean (still on my first cup of tea), but if I want to copy the browser URL, left clicking on the first letter in the URL highlights the whole thing.

Triple click works without fail on this system. You just gotta click really fast. Of course you also have to do it when NOTHING is highlighted so if one word is highlighted click once more to unhighlight it THEN triple click really fast.
 
If you do it too slow it'll just select one word instead of the whole thing.
 
I'm also on Firefox so not sure if that makes a difference.

Have you forgotten CTL-A? It works in SONAR, too.

 
 

jamesg1213
I might be misinterpreting what you mean (still on my first cup of tea), but if I want to copy the browser URL, left clicking on the first letter in the URL highlights the whole thing.

 
Maybe I have misunderstood too, but I just left click anywhere along the url and it highlights in full every time. Win 8.1 / FF 35.0.1.

paulo
 
 

jamesg1213
I might be misinterpreting what you mean (still on my first cup of tea), but if I want to copy the browser URL, left clicking on the first letter in the URL highlights the whole thing.

 
Maybe I have misunderstood too, but I just left click anywhere along the url and it highlights in full every time. Win 8.1 / FF 35.0.1.

That's on the first click though and can be done anywhere in the URL on the first click. If you happen to click again then you have to do the really fast triple click to get the whole URL again.
 
This is actually something that occasionally annoys me as well because I'm used to using the first click to just get a text cursor in other programs then double clicking or or swiping to snag text. So with that habit I always end up losing that first highlight then you have to fiddle with it to get it back.
 
Up until this thread I would just click like a spazz a bunch of times until I got the full URL. Now I know it's a fast triple click when nothing else is highlighted.
 
Learn something new everyday... lol.

Beepster

paulo
 
 

jamesg1213
I might be misinterpreting what you mean (still on my first cup of tea), but if I want to copy the browser URL, left clicking on the first letter in the URL highlights the whole thing.

 
Maybe I have misunderstood too, but I just left click anywhere along the url and it highlights in full every time. Win 8.1 / FF 35.0.1.

That's on the first click though and can be done anywhere in the URL on the first click. If you happen to click again then you have to do the really fast triple click to get the whole URL again.
 
 

 
Nope.  Click anywhere other than the address bar then click anywhere on the url. Works for me every time.

Yup, but he's talking about while the cursor is still in the URL/address bar. By clicking outside the URL bar you start from scratch so the first click will snag it again. Totally works and totally easy but it could be construed as more awkward because you have to move the cursor to do it. With the triple click it can be done without navigating away from the address bar.
 
It really isn't any huge deal (or even a small deal) but I think sharke and I share some of the same curiosity/compulsions about silly stuff like this.