Comment # 6 on bug 941036 from Nick Levinson

Evince or Document Viewer, Calculator, Epiphany (Web), Midori, and Files apps
and a general observation on Gnome:

In Evince or Document Viewer 3.14.2, which is Gnome software, when used for the
text content of a PDF, auto-deselection also occurs. Repeat selection is
necessary. It also occurs when Document Viewer is used in a tab in the Firefox
(43.0.3) browser, although the Firefox browser is otherwise not afflicted with
this problem, when Document Viewer is used to view and download a PDF and the
save-as dialog (titled "Enter name of file to save to..." (including ellipsis
or suspension points)) appears, and the Name field is used. The text in the
Name field is auto-deselected until it's selected again.

In Calculator 3.14.1, in all four modes, with an answer in place,
auto-deselection occurs.

In the Software 3.14.7 app, on the page for the Chromium Web Browser,
auto-deselection occurs.

In the browser Epiphany (a/k/a Web, ver. 3.14.2, a Gnome browser) and Midori
0.5.8-2.4.9, but not in Firefox 44.0, Konqueror 4.14.8, QupZilla 1.6.6, or, I
think, Chromium 48.0.2564.82-67.1 (I can't open it lately (due to an openSuse
fault) so I can't double-check now), auto-deselection occurs.

In the Files app, to correct the exoneration stated above in comment 5,
paragraph #4, selecting works the first time as it should and as it does in
most software (i.e., without auto-deselection). However, the cut and copy
commands require holding keys (alt-x and alt-c) down for about a second of
time. Otherwise, holding them down too briefly will not support a paste
command. This is more visually symptomatic by selecting file/s and by applying
the cut command, because, with the cursor not over the selection-to-be, while
you hold the keys down you can see the selection start as blue with black
marks, then lighten to blue with lighter marks, then return to the original
blue with black, then lighten again. You need to get to the second lightening
in order to have pastable files. Whether lightening has occurred only once or
fully twice, go elsewhere (where the files could be pasted without duplication
of names or shortage of storage space) and open the context menu. In the
context menu, see the Paste command. If lightening occurred only once, the
Paste command will be dim. If the lightening occurred twice, the Paste command
will be available. The same effect occurs with the copy command except that a
change in the marks' shade is not visible; if the attempt to copy is too brief,
the context-menu Paste command will be dim, but if the copying took about a
second of time or more then Paste will be available. An additional fact
regarding folders is that applying alt-a (Select All) alt-x briefly (long
enough for one lightening but not two) to one set of folders and then alt-a
alt-x just as briefly to another set of folders with identical names as in the
first selection results in a dim Paste command, thus that, unlike with text in
which different strings that are identical are treated like the same string for
not auto-deselecting, folders that are different but identically named are not
treated as the same folders, which I assume is because path names are part of
cutting or copying, in which case the folders are not identical.

Possibly, Gnome software is more likely to auto-deselect than non-Gnome
software on this openSuse platform but some non-Gnome software may also
auto-deselect.