ACC2000: How to Send Information to the Clipboard

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Article ID: 210216 - View products that this article applies to.
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Microsoft Access does not have a command that sends information to the Clipboard. To post information to the Clipboard, you need to define a Visual Basic for Applications function that calls several Microsoft Windows API functions. This article shows you how to create a function that copies text to the Clipboard.


To copy information to the Clipboard, follow these steps:
NOTE: You may have some Microsoft Windows API functions defined in an existing Microsoft Access library; therefore, your declarations may be duplicates. If you receive a duplicate procedure name error message, remove or comment out the declarations statement in your code.
  1. Start Microsoft Access and open any database or project.
  2. Create a module and type or paste the following lines in the Declarations section:
    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
  3. Type or paste the following procedure:
    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)
       If CloseClipboard() = 0 Then
          MsgBox "Could not close Clipboard."
       End If
       End Function
  4. To test this function, type the following line in the Immediate window, and then press ENTER.
    ? ClipBoard_SetData("To Clipboard")
    Press CTRL+V (the shortcut for Paste) and note that "To Clipboard" is pasted into the Immediate window from the Clipboard.


For more information about declaring Windows API functions, in the Visual Basic Editor, click Microsoft Visual Basic Help on the Help menu, type declare statement in the Office Assistant or the Answer Wizard, and then click Search to view the topic.


Article ID: 210216 - Last Review: June 23, 2005 - Revision: 3.0
  • Microsoft Access 2000 Standard Edition
kbhowto kbprogramming KB210216

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