How to: Retrieve Information from the Clipboard

Using the RunCommand Method

You can use the RunCommand method with the acCmdPaste constant to paste the contents of the Clipboard into the active control on a form or report. The following example illustrates how to paste the contents of the Clipboard into a text box named txtNotes.

Private Sub cmdPaste_Click() 
   Me!txtNotes.SetFocus 
   DoCmd.RunCommand acCmdPaste 
End Sub

Using the Windows API

To use API calls to retrieve information from the Clipboard, paste the following code into the Declarations section of a standard module.

Declare Function OpenClipboard Lib "User32" (ByVal hwnd As Long) _ 
   As Long 
Declare Function CloseClipboard Lib "User32" () As Long 
Declare Function GetClipboardData Lib "User32" (ByVal wFormat As _ 
   Long) As Long 
Declare Function GlobalAlloc Lib "kernel32" (ByVal wFlags&, ByVal _ 
   dwBytes As Long) As Long 
Declare Function GlobalLock Lib "kernel32" (ByVal hMem As Long) _ 
   As Long 
Declare Function GlobalUnlock Lib "kernel32" (ByVal hMem As Long) _ 
   As Long 
Declare Function GlobalSize Lib "kernel32" (ByVal hMem As Long) _ 
   As Long 
Declare Function lstrcpy Lib "kernel32" (ByVal lpString1 As Any, _ 
   ByVal lpString2 As Any) As Long 
 
Public Const GHND = &H42 
Public Const CF_TEXT = 1 
Public Const MAXSIZE = 4096

Paste the following code into a standard module.

Function ClipBoard_GetData() 
   Dim hClipMemory As Long 
   Dim lpClipMemory As Long 
   Dim MyString As String 
   Dim RetVal As Long 
 
   If OpenClipboard(0&) = 0 Then 
      MsgBox "Cannot open Clipboard. Another app. may have it open" 
      Exit Function 
   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 OutOfHere 
   End If 
 
   ' Lock Clipboard memory so we can reference 
   ' the actual data string. 
   lpClipMemory = GlobalLock(hClipMemory) 
 
   If Not IsNull(lpClipMemory) Then 
      MyString = Space$(MAXSIZE) 
      RetVal = lstrcpy(MyString, lpClipMemory) 
      RetVal = GlobalUnlock(hClipMemory) 
       
      ' Peel off the null terminating character. 
      MyString = Mid(MyString, 1, InStr(1, MyString, Chr$(0), 0) - 1) 
   Else 
      MsgBox "Could not lock memory to copy string from." 
   End If 
 
OutOfHere: 
 
   RetVal = CloseClipboard() 
   ClipBoard_GetData = MyString 
 
End Function