I would like to extract just the link text off of a webpage without
copying the surrounding text and images (very time consuming to remove).

I just want the text (do not need the link, destination etc.).

Any ideas?

First off download the FireFox browser at www.getfirefox.com. It's the
best browser by far, and you need it to do the method I'm telling you.
Then download the Web Developers Toolbar:
http://chrispederick.com/work/webdeveloper/ This is just a toolbar for
firefox that you can easily desable/hide and enable/show whenever you
want, and has a huge amount of features. Once installed click Images,
then click Unhide images on the page you want to make a text
selection. Then pless CONTROL + A to select all the text and copy and
paste it as needed. Use the same method for make the images come back.
Hope this helps!