From How to preserve text selection when opening a jQuery dialogHow to preserve text selection when opening a jQuery dialog: you have to preserve selection on blur and restore it on focus:
$("dialog").focus(function() { // save the selection }).blur(function() { // set the text selection }); Setting selection (from jQuery Set Cursor Position in Text AreajQuery Set Cursor Position in Text Area):
$.fn.selectRange = function(start, end) { return this.each(function() { if(this.setSelectionRange) { this.focus(); this.setSelectionRange(start, end); } else if(this.createTextRange) { var range = this.createTextRange(); range.collapse(true); range.moveEnd('character', end); range.moveStart('character', start); range.select(); } }); }; $('#elem').selectRange(3,5); Getting selection: http://laboratorium.0xab.cd/jquery/fieldselection/0.1.0/test.html