text selection range

by crduling

HTML

<div>
  <div id='articleContents'>
Hi. I like pizza. Random highlight here.
  </div>
</div>

JavaScript

$("#articleContents").click(function(e) {

		if (window.getSelection) {

			var startIndex = window.getSelection().getRangeAt(0).startOffset;
			var endIndex = window.getSelection().getRangeAt(0).endOffset;
			alert("start: " + startIndex + " end: " + endIndex);

		}

});