Per HTML5 spec, section 8.6.5. http://www.whatwg.org/specs/web-apps/current-work/multipage/dnd.html#drag-and-drop-processing-model, dragging and dropping text in editable region should also behave like regular drag & drop as far as scripts are concerned. In particular, event.dataTransfer.getData('text/plain') in dragstart, drop, & dragend should return the actual content being moved.