Automation issue

[HARSHRAJSINGHCHOUHAN]

Nova Act cannot reliably select text inside any custom contenteditable editor, even if the editor is perfectly working. It is a limitation of automation technology, not the editor.

[the-rpc]

Hi @HARSHRAJSINGHCHOUHAN thanks for raising this. Could you please provide some additional context on your use case such as the website you're testing on and your prompt? This will help us reproduce and address the issue. Thanks!

[HARSHRAJSINGHCHOUHAN]

Hi @HARSHRAJSINGHCHOUHAN thanks for raising this. Could you please provide some additional context on your use case such as the website you're testing on and your prompt? This will help us reproduce and address the issue. Thanks!

Hi team,

Thank you for your response. As requested, here is the complete context of the issue.

Use Case & Background

Initially, we tested Nova Act on standard online editors such as Google Docs, Office-style editors, and other rich-text editors available on the web.
Our goal was to automate actions like:

Selecting text

Applying bold formatting

Setting margins

Performing keyboard shortcuts (e.g., Ctrl + A, Ctrl + B)

However, Nova Act was unable to select any text in these editors.

To isolate the issue and verify whether the problem was with the editors or with the automation, we created our own very simple, plain HTML contenteditable editor.
The editor contains:

A contenteditable="true" div

Basic buttons such as Bold, Italic, Underline

No frameworks, no styling complications — just a clean HTML environment

Observed Behavior

Nova Act works perfectly for:

Clicking inside the editor

Typing text

Clicking toolbar buttons

Navigating the page

But the problem remains:

Nova Act cannot perform any kind of text selection inside the contenteditable editor.

Whether we try:

Mouse-based selection

Keyboard shortcut Ctrl + A

Double-click selection

Selecting a specific word by prompt

None of these actions succeed.

We have tried multiple prompt variations, but text selection never occurs.

Prompts Used (Examples)

nova.act("On the page, click inside the field labeled'.")
nova.act("Type: HarshRaj")
nova.act("Press and hold the Control key and then press the 'A' key to select all text (Ctrl + A).")
nova.act("Click the Bold button labeled 'B' in the formatting toolbar to apply bold styling to the selected text.")

Across all attempts, the issue is consistent:
No text is ever selected. The bold button is clicked, but nothing happens because the text wasn't selected.

Question

Since the same behavior occurs in:

Google Docs

Other rich-text editors

Our own custom simple HTML editor

We would like to confirm whether this is a known limitation of Nova Act (or browser automation frameworks like Playwright) when interacting with contenteditable text selection, or if we are missing something on our side.

Any guidance or clarification would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you!

— HarshRaj Singh Chouhan

[the-rpc]

@HARSHRAJSINGHCHOUHAN thanks for the great overview of your use case!

Key presses are not part of Nova Act's core actuation capabilities, by default Nova Act can click, scroll, and type. You can see their implementations here and here.

Curious what your use case for text selection is?

If you just need to clear the text area, you could use prompts like "Clear the text input" or "Type '' in the text area" to clear it.

You'll also notice that the default agent_type() actuator does a programmatic clear with Playwright by pressing keys to select all text and deleting it. You should be able to do something similar in your script, NovaAct instances provide the active Playwright Page object that you can use to execute Playwright code.

Let me know if that helps of if you have a specific use case outside of selecting and clearing text in a text area!

[HARSHRAJSINGHCHOUHAN]

@HARSHRAJSINGHCHOUHAN thanks for the great overview of your use case!

Key presses are not part of Nova Act's core actuation capabilities, by default Nova Act can click, scroll, and type. You can see their implementations here and here.

Curious what your use case for text selection is?

If you just need to clear the text area, you could use prompts like "Clear the text input" or "Type '' in the text area" to clear it.

You'll also notice that the default agent_type() actuator does a programmatic clear with Playwright by pressing keys to select all text and deleting it. You should be able to do something similar in your script, NovaAct instances provide the active Playwright Page object that you can use to execute Playwright code.

Let me know if that helps of if you have a specific use case outside of selecting and clearing text in a text area!

Hi @the-rpc
Our use case involves performing basic rich-text editing actions inside a simple HTML contenteditable editor.

For example, inside the editor there is already some text (a paragraph or sentence). Using Nova Act, we want to automate actions such as:

Select the entire paragraph

Make the selected text bold

Change the color of the selected text

Apply formatting only to a specific part of the text

These actions all require Nova Act to select text first (either via drag selection or keyboard shortcuts like Ctrl + A). Typing, clicking, and clearing text all work correctly, but any attempt to select existing text—fully or partially—does not work.

Our goal is to confirm whether rich-text selection inside contenteditable editors is supported or planned, because selection is required before applying any formatting.

[HARSHRAJSINGHCHOUHAN]

@the-rpc @omkarubale @Shrutissahu @awerchniak
I have one specific question regarding Nova Act, and I respectfully request a clear answer so I can proceed confidently.

Is Nova Act capable of selecting existing text on a webpage (for example, selecting the word “HarshRaj”) and then performing an action on it, such as clicking the Bold button to apply formatting?

In simple terms: Does Nova Act support text selection, yes or no?

This clarification is very important for my use case and project direction. I have been exploring this for some time, and without confirmation, I am unable to move forward effectively.

I sincerely request your guidance so I can either continue with this approach or adjust my project accordingly.

Thank you for your time and support.

Respectfully,
HarshRaj