Office 2013 Excel .PutInClipboard is Different?

Question

I've used a routine for years to put a plain text string into the clipboard that I can paste into another program such as:

targetData.SetText "This is a plain text string"
targetData.PutInClipboard

When I use this in Excel Office 2013 the data isn't in the clipboard and therefore I can't paste it. This never happened in prior versions.

Under closer inspection I've found that the string does go to the clipboard but as "System String" but not as "Text" or "Unicode Text".

BUT... about 10% of the time it acutally works as it should putting the string into the clipboard as "Text".

Any ideas??

Answer 1

user2140261's comment is the correct solution:

How to: Send Information to the Clipboard

(The following is just copied from the above link)

If you need to copy the contents of the active control on a form or report to the Clipboard, you only need this code:

Private Sub cmdCopy_Click() 
   Me!txtNotes.SetFocus 
   DoCmd.RunCommand acCmdCopy 
End Sub

However, this the replacement you need for your old routine:

1. Create a module, name it "WinAPI" or something, put this code in it:

Declare Function GlobalUnlock Lib "kernel32" (ByVal hMem As Long) As Long
Declare Function GlobalLock Lib "kernel32" (ByVal hMem As Long) As Long
Declare Function GlobalAlloc Lib "kernel32" (ByVal wFlags As Long, ByVal dwBytes As Long) As Long
Declare Function CloseClipboard Lib "User32" () As Long
Declare Function OpenClipboard Lib "User32" (ByVal hwnd As Long) As Long
Declare Function EmptyClipboard Lib "User32" () As Long
Declare Function lstrcpy Lib "kernel32" (ByVal lpString1 As Any, ByVal lpString2 As Any) As Long
Declare Function SetClipboardData Lib "User32" (ByVal wFormat As Long, ByVal hMem As Long) As Long

Public Const GHND = &H42
Public Const CF_TEXT = 1
Public Const MAXSIZE = 4096

2. In the module where your old routine is defined, replace your old routine with this code:

Function ClipBoard_SetData(MyString As String) 
   Dim hGlobalMemory As Long, lpGlobalMemory As Long 
   Dim hClipMemory As Long, X As Long 

   ' Allocate moveable global memory. 
   '------------------------------------------- 
   hGlobalMemory = GlobalAlloc(GHND, Len(MyString) + 1) 

   ' Lock the block to get a far pointer 
   ' to this memory. 
   lpGlobalMemory = GlobalLock(hGlobalMemory) 

   ' Copy the string to this global memory. 
   lpGlobalMemory = lstrcpy(lpGlobalMemory, MyString) 

   ' Unlock the memory. 
   If GlobalUnlock(hGlobalMemory) <> 0 Then 
      MsgBox "Could not unlock memory location. Copy aborted." 
      GoTo OutOfHere2 
   End If 

   ' Open the Clipboard to copy data to. 
   If OpenClipboard(0&) = 0 Then 
      MsgBox "Could not open the Clipboard. Copy aborted." 
      Exit Function 
   End If 

   ' Clear the Clipboard. 
   X = EmptyClipboard() 

   ' Copy the data to the Clipboard. 
   hClipMemory = SetClipboardData(CF_TEXT, hGlobalMemory) 

OutOfHere2: 

   If CloseClipboard() = 0 Then 
      MsgBox "Could not close Clipboard." 
   End If 

End Function

3. Then, call it like this:

' doesn't work on Windows 8: targetData.SetText "This is a plain text string"
'doesn't work on Windows 8: targetData.PutInClipboard
ClipBoard_SetData ("This is a plain text string")

Answer 2

You should add "Microsoft forms 2.0 object library" to your references then you can use this feature. you can do this by going to Excel/developer/Visual basic(or your VBE module) and in the tools/references select browse and then in your system32 folder search for "FM20.DLL" file and then by selecting this file at the end of the references list "Microsoft forms 2.0 object library" will be appeared. Activate that . Now things are as good as old times ;)