<!-- Any copyright is dedicated to the Public Domain. http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/ --> <!DOCTYPE html> <style> html, body { margin: 0 } svg, div { display: inline-block; width: 700px; height: 200px } div { font: 16px sans-serif; margin-left: -700px; vertical-align: 100px } span { margin-left: 100px } </style> <body> <svg></svg><div><span>hello</span></div> <script> var span = document.getElementsByTagName("span")[0]; var range = document.createRange(); range.setStart(span.firstChild, 1); range.setEnd(span.firstChild, 4); window.getSelection().addRange(range); </script> </body>