How to Grab CSS-Hidden Links
New in Link Grabber Chrome extension: optionally include links that the page hides with CSS (collapsed menus, language lists). Off for existing installs so nothing changes until you turn it on.
Why CSS-hidden links matter
Options → Hidden links checkbox under advanced extraction settings
Many portals keep hundreds of real `<a href>` links in the HTML but hide them until you expand a section.
Classic example: wikipedia.org — the language list lives in the page, collapsed behind "Read Wikipedia in your language". A scan of only visible links returns a few dozen URLs. The full list is hundreds.
Link Grabber used to skip anything with `visibility: hidden` or `display: none`. That’s still the right default for drag-select (you can’t box what you can’t see). For 'Find All', 'Grab All', and 'Link Crawler', you may want those URLs.
Hidden links is that switch.
Classic example: wikipedia.org — the language list lives in the page, collapsed behind "Read Wikipedia in your language". A scan of only visible links returns a few dozen URLs. The full list is hundreds.
Link Grabber used to skip anything with `visibility: hidden` or `display: none`. That’s still the right default for drag-select (you can’t box what you can’t see). For 'Find All', 'Grab All', and 'Link Crawler', you may want those URLs.
Hidden links is that switch.
What’s new
Enable shadow DOM link extraction
- Find All / Grab All / Crawl can include CSS-hidden anchors (collapsed menus, language pickers, off-screen nav).
- Drag-select still uses visible links only.
- On the page, hidden hits get a dashed gray frame and an eye-off icon so they don’t look like empty blue boxes.
- New installs: Hidden links is ON.
- Existing installs: it stays OFF so your current Grab All / Find All counts do not jump overnight. Enable it when you want the extra URLs.
Example on imge:
This is not Shadow DOM. Shadow DOM is a separate Options toggle for links inside encapsulated subtrees. Hidden links is CSS visibility / display.
- Drag-select still uses visible links only.
- On the page, hidden hits get a dashed gray frame and an eye-off icon so they don’t look like empty blue boxes.
- New installs: Hidden links is ON.
- Existing installs: it stays OFF so your current Grab All / Find All counts do not jump overnight. Enable it when you want the extra URLs.
Example on imge:
- Normal link (blue)
- Duplicate link (red)
- Hidden link (gray)
This is not Shadow DOM. Shadow DOM is a separate Options toggle for links inside encapsulated subtrees. Hidden links is CSS visibility / display.
How to turn it on (existing users)
Step 1: Update Link Grabber (Open chrome://extensions/ and click Update at top of the page).
Step 2: Open Options — gear icon in the popup, or right-click the extension icon → Options.
Step 3: In Advanced Options, enable Hidden links.
Step 4: Reload the tab if it was already open, then run Find All or Grab All (or start a crawl).
Try it on wikipedia.org: with the setting off you’ll see the featured languages and footer. With it on you’ll get the full language list from the collapsed panel.
💡 Tip: Duplicates still use the red frame. Hidden + duplicate → duplicate styling wins.
Step 2: Open Options — gear icon in the popup, or right-click the extension icon → Options.
Step 3: In Advanced Options, enable Hidden links.
Step 4: Reload the tab if it was already open, then run Find All or Grab All (or start a crawl).
Try it on wikipedia.org: with the setting off you’ll see the featured languages and footer. With it on you’ll get the full language list from the collapsed panel.
💡 Tip: Duplicates still use the red frame. Hidden + duplicate → duplicate styling wins.
Related Features
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