Text To Clipboard in VBA Windows 10 Issue

Question

I have a function that I use to send a string to the windows clipboard:

Sub TextToClipboard(ByVal Text As String)

  With CreateObject("new:{1C3B4210-F441-11CE-B9EA-00AA006B1A69}") 'FM20.dll (Microsoft Forms 2.0 Object Library)
    .SetText Text
    .PutInClipboard
  End With

End Sub

I recently upgraded my machine to Windows 10 and now when I run this function it eats everything in my clipboard and replaces it with a few garbage characters. I get different results on what these characters are depending on the application I paste them into:

1. VBA Editor: ??
2. Microsoft Word: ?? (surrounded by boxes)
3. Notepad++: xEF xBF xBF xEF xBF xBF (white text surrounded by black boxes)

I took code from MSDN to use the Windows API (I made my functions PtrSafe as you'll see below) and the "GlobalUnlock" function returns '1' so I guess it can't allocate the memory correctly.

Option Explicit

#If VBA7 Then

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

#Else

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

#End If

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

Sub 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 Sub
   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 Sub

I did get this method to work, but the window pops up for a second and it puts a new line character at the end which isn't exactly ideal, plus it would require having a connection with Excel for the wait function. Not terrible either I guess.

Sub SetClipboard(Text As String)

  With CreateObject("WScript.Shell").Exec("clip")
    With .stdIn
      .WriteLine Text
      .Close
    End With

    Do While .Status = 0
        Application.Wait 1
    Loop

  End With

End Sub

Finally, I ran first two functions on another Windows 7 machine via Remote Desktop Connection Manager and it successfully ran and changed the clipboard on my Windows 10 machine successfully.

So I'm not sure if doing the upgrade to Windows 10 messed with these libraries or the clipboard is different somehow. Is there any way for me to get these working again? Maybe someone else with Windows 10 and Office won't have the issue at all and it's just my machine?

Answer 1

Thanks to the comments under my question I figured out the error was declaring my variables as Long instead of LongPtr. It's still not 100% clear if my first method "TextToClipboard" is failing because of my office instance being 64-bit, but the second method seems to overcome that fine. If anyone else is interested here is the code I modified to read and write to the clipboard that shouldn't be affected by 64 or 32-bit versions of office. My modifications also included getting all of the text even if it's longer than 4096 characters.

For context I'm putting this in a module called 'mClipboard' so that when I call these methods I use 'mClipboard.GetText'.

Hope this helps someone else too!

Option Explicit

#If VBA7 Then

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

#Else

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

#End If



Public Sub SetText(Text As String)


#If VBA7 Then

Dim hGlobalMemory As LongPtr
Dim lpGlobalMemory As LongPtr
Dim hClipMemory As LongPtr

#Else

Dim hGlobalMemory As Long
Dim lpGlobalMemory As Long
Dim hClipMemory As Long

#End If



Const GHND = &H42
Const CF_TEXT = 1

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

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

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

   ' Clear the Clipboard.
   Call EmptyClipboard

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

CloseClipboard:

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

End Sub

Public Property Get GetText()


#If VBA7 Then

Dim hClipMemory As LongPtr
Dim lpClipMemory As LongPtr

#Else

Dim hClipMemory As Long
Dim lpClipMemory As Long

#End If



Dim MaximumSize As Long
Dim ClipText As String

Const CF_TEXT = 1

   If OpenClipboard(0&) = 0 Then
      MsgBox "Cannot open Clipboard. Another app. may have it open"
      Exit Property
   End If

   ' Obtain the handle to the global memory block that is referencing the text.
   hClipMemory = GetClipboardData(CF_TEXT)
   If IsNull(hClipMemory) Then
      MsgBox "Could not allocate memory"
      GoTo CloseClipboard
   End If

   ' Lock Clipboard memory so we can reference the actual data string.
   lpClipMemory = GlobalLock(hClipMemory)

   If Not IsNull(lpClipMemory) Then
      MaximumSize = 64

      Do
        MaximumSize = MaximumSize * 2

        ClipText = Space$(MaximumSize)
        Call lstrcpy(ClipText, lpClipMemory)
        Call GlobalUnlock(hClipMemory)

      Loop Until ClipText Like "*" & vbNullChar & "*"

      ' Peel off the null terminating character.
      ClipText = Left$(ClipText, InStrRev(ClipText, vbNullChar) - 1)

   Else
      MsgBox "Could not lock memory to copy string from."
   End If

CloseClipboard:

   Call CloseClipboard
   GetText = ClipText

End Property

Answer 2

Had same issue Windows 10 x64 and Office Excel 2016 x64.

Finally I was able to copy Cell's string value to Windows API Clipboard :)

Code:

Option Explicit

#If VBA7 Then
   Declare PtrSafe Function OpenClipboard Lib "user32.dll" (ByVal hWnd As LongPtr) As LongPtr
 Declare PtrSafe Function EmptyClipboard Lib "user32.dll" () As LongPtr
 Declare PtrSafe Function CloseClipboard Lib "user32.dll" () As LongPtr
 Declare PtrSafe Function IsClipboardFormatAvailable Lib "user32.dll" (ByVal wFormat As LongPtr) As LongPtr
 Declare PtrSafe Function GetClipboardData Lib "user32.dll" (ByVal wFormat As LongPtr) As LongPtr
 Declare PtrSafe Function SetClipboardData Lib "user32.dll" (ByVal wFormat As LongPtr, ByVal hMem As LongPtr) As LongPtr
 Declare PtrSafe Function GlobalAlloc Lib "kernel32.dll" (ByVal wFlags As LongPtr, ByVal dwBytes As LongPtr) As LongPtr
 Declare PtrSafe Function GlobalLock Lib "kernel32.dll" (ByVal hMem As LongPtr) As LongPtr
 Declare PtrSafe Function GlobalUnlock Lib "kernel32.dll" (ByVal hMem As LongPtr) As LongPtr
 Declare PtrSafe Function GlobalSize Lib "kernel32" (ByVal hMem As LongPtr) As LongPtr
 Declare PtrSafe Function lstrcpy Lib "kernel32.dll" Alias "lstrcpyW" (ByVal lpString1 As LongPtr, ByVal lpString2 As LongPtr) As LongPtr
 #Else
Private Declare Function OpenClipboard Lib "user32.dll" (ByVal hWnd As Long) As Long
Private Declare Function EmptyClipboard Lib "user32.dll" () As Long
Private Declare Function CloseClipboard Lib "user32.dll" () As Long
Private Declare Function IsClipboardFormatAvailable Lib "user32.dll" (ByVal wFormat As Long) As Long
Private Declare Function GetClipboardData Lib "user32.dll" (ByVal wFormat As Long) As Long
Private Declare Function SetClipboardData Lib "user32.dll" (ByVal wFormat As Long, ByVal hMem As Long) As Long
Private Declare Function GlobalAlloc Lib "kernel32.dll" (ByVal wFlags As Long, ByVal dwBytes As Long) As Long
Private Declare Function GlobalLock Lib "kernel32.dll" (ByVal hMem As Long) As Long
Private Declare Function GlobalUnlock Lib "kernel32.dll" (ByVal hMem As Long) As Long
Private Declare Function GlobalSize Lib "kernel32" (ByVal hMem As Long) As Long
Private Declare Function lstrcpy Lib "kernel32.dll" Alias "lstrcpyW" (ByVal lpString1 As Long, ByVal lpString2 As Long) As Long
#End If



Public Sub SetClipboard(sUniText As String)
#If Win64 Then
    Dim iStrPtr As LongPtr
    Dim iLen As LongPtr
    Dim iLock As LongPtr
#Else
    Dim iStrPtr As Long
    Dim iLen As Long
    Dim iLock As Long
#End If
    Const GMEM_MOVEABLE As Long = &H2
    Const GMEM_ZEROINIT As Long = &H40
    Const CF_UNICODETEXT As Long = &HD
    OpenClipboard 0&
    EmptyClipboard
    iLen = LenB(sUniText) + 2&
    iStrPtr = GlobalAlloc(GMEM_MOVEABLE Or GMEM_ZEROINIT, iLen)
    iLock = GlobalLock(iStrPtr)
    lstrcpy iLock, StrPtr(sUniText)
    GlobalUnlock iStrPtr
    SetClipboardData CF_UNICODETEXT, iStrPtr
    CloseClipboard
End Sub

Answer 3

Refined @Unicco's answer, which supports Unicode well.

• Declare

Option Explicit
#If VBA7 Then

Private Declare PtrSafe Function OpenClipboard Lib "User32" (ByVal hWnd As LongPtr) As LongPtr
Private Declare PtrSafe Function EmptyClipboard Lib "User32" () As LongPtr
Private Declare PtrSafe Function CloseClipboard Lib "User32" () As LongPtr
Private Declare PtrSafe Function IsClipboardFormatAvailable Lib "User32" (ByVal wFormat As LongPtr) As LongPtr
Private Declare PtrSafe Function GetClipboardData Lib "User32" (ByVal wFormat As LongPtr) As LongPtr
Private Declare PtrSafe Function SetClipboardData Lib "User32" (ByVal wFormat As LongPtr, ByVal hMem As LongPtr) As LongPtr
Private Declare PtrSafe Function GlobalAlloc Lib "kernel32.dll" (ByVal wFlags As Long, ByVal dwBytes As Long) As LongPtr
Private Declare PtrSafe Function GlobalLock Lib "kernel32.dll" (ByVal hMem As LongPtr) As LongPtr
Private Declare PtrSafe Function GlobalUnlock Lib "kernel32.dll" (ByVal hMem As LongPtr) As LongPtr
Private Declare PtrSafe Function GlobalSize Lib "kernel32" (ByVal hMem As LongPtr) As Long
Private Declare PtrSafe Function lstrcpy Lib "kernel32.dll" Alias "lstrcpyW" (ByVal lpString1 As Any, ByVal lpString2 As Any) As LongPtr

#Else

Private Declare Function OpenClipboard Lib "user32.dll" (ByVal hWnd As Long) As Long
Private Declare Function EmptyClipboard Lib "user32.dll" () As Long
Private Declare Function CloseClipboard Lib "user32.dll" () As Long
Private Declare Function IsClipboardFormatAvailable Lib "user32.dll" (ByVal wFormat As Long) As Long
Private Declare Function GetClipboardData Lib "user32.dll" (ByVal wFormat As Long) As Long
Private Declare Function SetClipboardData Lib "user32.dll" (ByVal wFormat As Long, ByVal hMem As Long) As Long
Private Declare Function GlobalAlloc Lib "kernel32.dll" (ByVal wFlags As Long, ByVal dwBytes As Long) As Long
Private Declare Function GlobalLock Lib "kernel32.dll" (ByVal hMem As Long) As Long
Private Declare Function GlobalUnlock Lib "kernel32.dll" (ByVal hMem As Long) As Long
Private Declare Function GlobalSize Lib "kernel32" (ByVal hMem As Long) As Long
Private Declare Function lstrcpy Lib "kernel32.dll" Alias "lstrcpyW" (ByVal lpString1 As Long, ByVal lpString2 As Long) As Long

#End If

• SetClipboard

Public Sub SetClipboard(sUniText As String)

#If VBA7 Then
    Dim iStrPtr As LongPtr
    Dim iLock As LongPtr
#Else
    Dim iStrPtr As Long
    Dim iLock As Long
#End If

    Dim iLen As Long

    Const GMEM_MOVEABLE As Long = &H2
    Const GMEM_ZEROINIT As Long = &H40
    Const CF_UNICODETEXT As Long = &HD

    OpenClipboard 0&
    EmptyClipboard
    iLen = LenB(sUniText) + 2&
    iStrPtr = GlobalAlloc(GMEM_MOVEABLE + GMEM_ZEROINIT, iLen)
    iLock = GlobalLock(iStrPtr)
    lstrcpy iLock, StrPtr(sUniText)
    GlobalUnlock iStrPtr
    SetClipboardData CF_UNICODETEXT, iStrPtr
    CloseClipboard
End Sub

• GetClipboard

Public Function GetClipboard() As String
#If VBA7 Then
    Dim iStrPtr As LongPtr
    Dim iLock As LongPtr
#Else
    Dim iStrPtr As Long
    Dim iLock As Long
#End If
    Dim iLen As Long
    Dim sUniText As String

    Const CF_UNICODETEXT As Long = 13&

    OpenClipboard 0&

    If IsClipboardFormatAvailable(CF_UNICODETEXT) Then
        iStrPtr = GetClipboardData(CF_UNICODETEXT)
        If iStrPtr Then
            iLock = GlobalLock(iStrPtr)
            iLen = GlobalSize(iStrPtr)
            sUniText = String$(iLen \ 2& - 1&, vbNullChar)
            lstrcpy StrPtr(sUniText), iLock
            GlobalUnlock iStrPtr
        End If
        GetClipboard = sUniText
    End If

    CloseClipboard
End Function

Answer 4

These answers dosen't work for me, and I think they are kinda overkill.

The following code works @ 64-bit Windows 10 & 64-bit Office Excel 2016

Usage:

Call SetClipboard("Clipboard this text")

Insert below code to some VBA-module

Option Explicit
Private Declare Function OpenClipboard Lib "user32.dll" (ByVal hWnd As Long) As Long
Private Declare Function EmptyClipboard Lib "user32.dll" () As Long
Private Declare Function CloseClipboard Lib "user32.dll" () As Long
Private Declare Function IsClipboardFormatAvailable Lib "user32.dll" (ByVal wFormat As Long) As Long
Private Declare Function GetClipboardData Lib "user32.dll" (ByVal wFormat As Long) As Long
Private Declare Function SetClipboardData Lib "user32.dll" (ByVal wFormat As Long, ByVal hMem As Long) As Long
Private Declare Function GlobalAlloc Lib "kernel32.dll" (ByVal wFlags As Long, ByVal dwBytes As Long) As Long
Private Declare Function GlobalLock Lib "kernel32.dll" (ByVal hMem As Long) As Long
Private Declare Function GlobalUnlock Lib "kernel32.dll" (ByVal hMem As Long) As Long
Private Declare Function GlobalSize Lib "kernel32" (ByVal hMem As Long) As Long
Private Declare Function lstrcpy Lib "kernel32.dll" Alias "lstrcpyW" (ByVal lpString1 As Long, ByVal lpString2 As Long) As Long

Public Sub SetClipboard(sUniText As String)
    Dim iStrPtr As Long
    Dim iLen As Long
    Dim iLock As Long

    Const GMEM_MOVEABLE As Long = &H2
    Const GMEM_ZEROINIT As Long = &H40
    Const CF_UNICODETEXT As Long = &HD

    OpenClipboard 0&
    EmptyClipboard
    iLen = LenB(sUniText) + 2&
    iStrPtr = GlobalAlloc(GMEM_MOVEABLE Or GMEM_ZEROINIT, iLen)
    iLock = GlobalLock(iStrPtr)
    lstrcpy iLock, StrPtr(sUniText)
    GlobalUnlock iStrPtr
    SetClipboardData CF_UNICODETEXT, iStrPtr
    CloseClipboard
End Sub

Public Function GetClipboard() As String
    Dim iStrPtr As Long
    Dim iLen As Long
    Dim iLock As Long
    Dim sUniText As String

    Const CF_UNICODETEXT As Long = 13&

    OpenClipboard 0&

    If IsClipboardFormatAvailable(CF_UNICODETEXT) Then
        iStrPtr = GetClipboardData(CF_UNICODETEXT)
        If iStrPtr Then
            iLock = GlobalLock(iStrPtr)
            iLen = GlobalSize(iStrPtr)
            sUniText = String$(iLen \ 2& - 1&, vbNullChar)
            lstrcpy StrPtr(sUniText), iLock
            GlobalUnlock iStrPtr
        End If
        GetClipboard = sUniText
    End If

    CloseClipboard
End Function

Source: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/office/ff192913.aspx

Officially developed by Chris Macro

Answer 5

A other solution here is proposed by Excel Hero. It is a solution that does not use MS Forms nor the Win32 API. Instead it uses the Microsoft HTML Object Library

Works great for me.

Answer 6

Found this answer on reddit just in case someone needs help.

Option Explicit
Private Sub CopyCellContents()

Dim objData As New DataObject
Dim strTemp As String

strTemp = ActiveSheet.Range("E23").Value

strTemp = Replace(strTemp, Chr(10), vbCrLf)

objData.SetText strTemp
objData.PutInClipboard

End Sub

Answer 7

Win10 broke MSForms.DataObject; that's why the approach that works on Win7/32 or Win7/64 don't work now. Thank you, Khang Huynh, for a simple and elegant mod to the original macro.

I suggest a couple of tweaks:

Option Explicit

Private Sub CopyCellContents()

' dimension our vars

Dim objData As New DataObject

' set the contents of the active cell as our data object, removing extraneous spaces and linebreaks 

with objData

.SetText Trim(ActiveCell.Text)

' write it to the Clipboard

.PutInClipboard

' just for fun

Application.StatusBar = .GetText

End With

' clean up memory by not leaving object handles open

Set objData = Nothing

End Sub

Answer 8

I was having similar problems after moving to a new machine but it was solved by repointing to the microsoft forms dll. the data objects object (and simplified brief code posted by a few people towards the bottom here) will still work.

Go to references and add the microsoft forms 2.0 object library reference. if it is not shown click browse and select fm20.dll in the \\system32 folder.