# Unselected item on page included in monitoring

**URL:** <https://forums.distill.io/t/unselected-item-on-page-included-in-monitoring/5884>\
**Category:** Help and Support\
**Tags:** bug\
**Created:** [January 22, 2026, 10:49pm UTC](https://forums.distill.io/t/unselected-item-on-page-included-in-monitoring/5884 "2026-01-22T22:49:51Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![jbuzz](https://forums.distill.io/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/3ec8ea/32.png) [@jbuzz](https://forums.distill.io/u/jbuzz)\
**Post date:** [January 22, 2026, 10:49pm UTC](https://forums.distill.io/t/unselected-item-on-page-included-in-monitoring/5884/1 "2026-01-22T22:49:51Z")

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I select a portion of static text on a page to monitor but the monitor shows diff including part of the page I did not select.

I select the descriptive text on the left but not the date on the right. Yet I get change alerts with diffs showing that date value changing.

 ![image](https://forums.distill.io/uploads/default/original/2X/d/db2d40340cc5b4fec31885a42a257ce59ab147b5.png)

I’ve tried editing and selection as well as deleting the monitor and recreating it. Diffs continue to include that date which was not part of my selection.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![jbuzz](https://forums.distill.io/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/3ec8ea/32.png) [@jbuzz](https://forums.distill.io/u/jbuzz)\
**Post date:** [January 22, 2026, 10:52pm UTC](https://forums.distill.io/t/unselected-item-on-page-included-in-monitoring/5884/2 "2026-01-22T22:52:03Z")

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Perhaps I solved my own problem. class=“visuallyhidden”

Is there a way to ignore hidden elements?

 ![image](https://forums.distill.io/uploads/default/original/2X/9/97b25d040f1ced9298dce9b4521bbc10271ac47c.png)

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![srijith](https://forums.distill.io/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/c77e96/32.png) [@srijith](https://forums.distill.io/u/srijith)\
**Post date:** [January 23, 2026, 1:25pm UTC](https://forums.distill.io/t/unselected-item-on-page-included-in-monitoring/5884/3 "2026-01-23T13:25:06Z")

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@jbuzz Yes, this is a great use case for **de-selectors** , and it’s actually the closest thing Distill has today to “ignoring hidden elements.”

### Option 1: Use a selector + de-selector

A **de-selector** lets you explicitly exclude parts of the page you don’t want to monitor — including hidden elements like `visuallyhidden`.  
For your case:  
CSS selector:  
li.js-list-item–date:first-child a

De-selector:  
**a \> span.visuallyhidden**

You can open the Monitor Configuration settings (Monitor “Edit Options” → Settings) and add it to the Deselected CSS selector :

 ![image](https://forums.distill.io/uploads/default/original/2X/0/0f81ffbe9aaf080522b53af8f9f12eff083935bd.png)

This effectively “hides” those elements from monitoring, which directly addresses what you were asking about.

### Option 2: Use a more precise selector

Another way to solve this is by narrowing the selector so it targets _only_ the visible text node you care about.  
CSS selector:  
**li.js-list-item–date:first-child a \> span.item-headline.t6-light.downloads**

 ![image](https://forums.distill.io/uploads/default/original/2X/7/7b87c66eba58b14ff89da555cb53cc92f95100da.png)

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![jbuzz](https://forums.distill.io/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/3ec8ea/32.png) [@jbuzz](https://forums.distill.io/u/jbuzz)\
**Post date:** [January 23, 2026, 6:16pm UTC](https://forums.distill.io/t/unselected-item-on-page-included-in-monitoring/5884/4 "2026-01-23T18:16:12Z")

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Thank you so much for sharing this. Now I see how to use the selector more effectively. I found a third method as well. Using Firefox dev console there is a Copy \> CSS Selector method which grabs another query that isolates only the visible text.

 ![image](https://forums.distill.io/uploads/default/original/2X/7/7d085231e40ec2fca12c54b05312289d95435837.png)

```auto
li.js-list-item--date:nth-child(1) > div:nth-child(2) > a:nth-child(1) > span:nth-child(1)

```

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![jbuzz](https://forums.distill.io/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/3ec8ea/32.png) [@jbuzz](https://forums.distill.io/u/jbuzz)\
**Post date:** [January 23, 2026, 6:18pm UTC](https://forums.distill.io/t/unselected-item-on-page-included-in-monitoring/5884/5 "2026-01-23T18:18:39Z")

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This query also excludes the hidden text

```auto
li.js-list-item--date:nth-child(1) > div:nth-child(2) > a:nth-child(1) > span:nth-child(1)

```

 ![image](https://forums.distill.io/uploads/default/original/2X/f/f057a6112e342e9597fac8f2dba778af6dba65e6.png)

> [@jbuzz](#):
>
> `li.js-list-item--date:nth-child(1) > div:nth-child(2) > a:nth-child(1) > span:nth-child(1)`