Hyperlink and selectable text

if ui.hyperlink_to("Documentation", "https://example.com/docs").clicked() {
    // the application decides what a click means
}

ui.add(Hyperlink::new("Release notes").url("https://example.com/notes").open_in_browser());

ui.rich_label(
    RichText::new()
        .text("see ")
        .link("docs", "https://example.com/docs")
        .text(" for ")
        .bold("details"),
);

ui.selection_scope(|ui| {
    ui.selectable_label("First paragraph");
    ui.add(SelectableLabel::new("fn main() {}").monospace());
});
ui.copyable_label("cargo add zaxis");

Plain Text is unchanged: it has no hit region and no selection state. These widgets share one engine: the same paragraph table as TextEdit, so hit testing, the selection backing, underlines and the glyphs on screen all read one cached layout.

HyperlinkCopy Anchor Link

Hyperlink::new(text) is a link as a widget; ui.hyperlink(text) and ui.hyperlink_to(text, url) are the short forms. It is accent colored, underlines on hover, is reachable with Tab and shows a focus ring around each line of the link.

size, weight, monospace, muted, wrap, max_lines and the other typography builders are shared with SelectableLabel.

ActivationCopy Anchor Link

A click activates on release over the same link, like Button; pressing and moving away does not. A wrapped link has one hit area per line, and a press on one line with a release on the next is still one click. Enter and Space activate a focused link. Response::link_activation() reports the one activation of a pass:

• LinkActivation::Primary: click, Enter or Space. Response::clicked() is true too.
• LinkActivation::Secondary: middle click or Ctrl+click. clicked() stays false.

Hyperlink::show(ui) returns a HyperlinkOutput with response, activated and url. A secondary click opens a menu with Copy link address and Copy text.

URL safetyCopy Anchor Link

The library never opens an address unless you ask with open_in_browser() (or call UrlPolicy::open), and then only after UrlPolicy::check: the address must have no whitespace or control characters and a scheme from the allowlist. The default allowlist is https, http and mailto; anything else (javascript:, file:, ms-settings:, ...) is refused with UrlError::Scheme and reported as a diagnostic. Add schemes on purpose with UrlPolicy::default().allow("tel"), or build an exact list with UrlPolicy::only([..]). Text from an untrusted source should keep the default policy. The address is handed to the system as a single argument, never through a shell.

Links inside textCopy Anchor Link

RichText is a flat list of spans over one string. Build it piece by piece (text, bold, code, colored, styled, link, link_with) or with explicit byte ranges through RichText::from_spans(text, [Span::new(range).style(..).link(..)]). Ranges are widened to grapheme cluster boundaries; overlapping or empty ones are dropped and reported as invalid values. A Span has a SpanStyle (color, weight, monospace, underline) and an optional LinkTarget (url, visited, enabled, underline, tooltip and an optional ID, by default its position among the links).

ui.rich_label(rich) (or SelectableLabel::rich) shapes the spans together, so they wrap and kern as one paragraph. Every link is focusable and clickable on its own, in text order, after the paragraph's own Tab stop. LabelOutput::links has a LinkReport per link (response, address, activation); LabelOutput::activated() is the one that fired.

Selectable textCopy Anchor Link

ui.selectable_label(text) or SelectableLabel::new(text):

The pointer is an I-beam. The label takes one Tab stop so the shortcuts work and shows no caret; it never edits, and typing, Backspace and Delete are left alone. A focused TextEdit or ComboBox keeps its own shortcuts: the label reacts only while it has focus. The selection color is Style::text_edit_selection, dimmed in an inactive window or when the label does not have focus. It is drawn as snapped rectangles that share edges between lines at every DPI.

What is copied is exactly the selected text: explicit \n, tabs and runs of spaces stay, breaks that only wrapping added do not, underlines and decorations are not text. A link copies its visible text; its address is added as text (url) only with copy_url_in_selection(true). With truncate(true) or max_lines(n) the label shows an ellipsis, but selection and copy cover the full text.

One selection exists per window: pressing in another label or in empty space replaces or clears it. Context::selected_text() reads it and clear_selection() drops it. State is keyed by the label's ID, follows the label when its text changes (the range is clamped onto cluster boundaries) and is dropped when the label stops being built.

SelectionScopeCopy Anchor Link

Labels built inside ui.selection_scope(..) select as one document in build order: a drag from one label to another selects the tail of the first, everything between and the head of the last. Ctrl/Cmd+A selects the whole scope and a copy joins the labels with a line break, or with SelectionScope::new().separator(" "). Only labels that were built take part: in a virtualized list (ScrollArea::show_rows, ListBox) the rows that were never drawn are not selected and not copied.

Copy buttonCopy Anchor Link

SelectableLabel::copy_button() (or ui.copyable_label(text)) adds a small copy icon to the right. A click copies the whole text once and the icon becomes a check mark for about a second. The button is pointer-only, so it adds no Tab stop.

Inside rows, tables and listsCopy Anchor Link

A selectable label captures presses on its text. In a row that handles clicks itself (a ListBox row, a Table row, a TreeView node, a button-like card) use plain Text, or SelectableLabel::new(..).selectable(false) for the same layout without selection. A press that starts on a selectable label inside a draggable control selects text; start the drag of the control from outside the text. Windows and splitters are not affected: they are moved and resized from their own handles.

StyleCopy Anchor Link

Style::hyperlink (HyperlinkStyle, a Theme override) holds color, hovered, pressed, visited, disabled, underline, thickness and focus. Unset colors derive from the theme accent: hover is brighter on dark themes and deeper on light ones, pressed is darker, visited is the accent muted toward the secondary text, disabled is the disabled text color. The underline is a vector line at the baseline, a whole number of device pixels thick and snapped to the pixel grid. It is not a text character.

MotionCopy Anchor Link

Link colors and the underline fade through the hover tween of Style::motion; reduced_motion makes them instant. A settled link and a hidden one request no redraw. The selection backing follows the pointer immediately and is never animated.

LimitationsCopy Anchor Link

• Spans are flat: no nesting and one font size for the whole text. Weight, monospace and color change per span; italic and optical sizes do not exist yet.
• Bidirectional text selects by cluster and does not panic, but a range that crosses a direction change is shown as the several rectangles it covers and is not reordered visually.
• A link's focus ring and underline cover whole line fragments; a link inside truncated text keeps only its visible part.
• Selection does not cross windows (each native window has its own context) and never starts from a drag of a nested drag source.
• Rows a virtualized list did not build are not part of a cross-widget selection or copy.
• For screen readers a Hyperlink is one link node named by its text, with its address; selectable and rich text is a label holding the whole text (also when an ellipsis hides part of it), its selection and one link node per link. A link that the ellipsis hides entirely is not offered. The copy button is a button named "Copy".

AccessibilityCopy Anchor Link

A Hyperlink is one Link node named by its text, with its address, a visited state and its tooltip as description; a Click request activates it once, like Enter. Rich and selectable text is a Label (or Heading) whose value is the whole text, with one Link child per link; selectable text publishes its selection and accepts SetTextSelection. The copy button is a Button named "Copy". See Accessibility.