Getting the starting index of selected text

gistfile1.js

/*
 * Gets the starting index of the selected text
 */


function _getSelectionHtml() {
    /*
     * Returns HTML String of current selection
     */
    var html = "";
    if (typeof window.getSelection != "undefined") {
        var sel = window.getSelection();
        if (sel.rangeCount) {
            var container = document.createElement("div");
            for (var i = 0, len = sel.rangeCount; i < len; ++i) {
                container.appendChild(sel.getRangeAt(i).cloneContents());
            }
            html = container.innerHTML;
        }
    } else if (typeof document.selection != "undefined") {
        if (document.selection.type == "Text") {
            html = document.selection.createRange().htmlText;
        }
    }
    return html;
}


// Get all the html in your text container
var textContainerHtml = $('.myTextContainer').html();

// Get the the html string that was selected using the above function
var selectedHtml = _getSelectionHtml();

// Set the starting and ending index
var index = -1;
var endex = -1;
if (selectedHtml) {
    index = textContainerHtml.indexOf(selectedHtml);
    endex = index + selectedHtml.length;
}

This is assuming that the text selected is unique withing the container.