Windows – save the exact state of the clipboard in windows

clipboardwindows xp

I want to save the exact state of the clipboard for future reference. Is there a way I can do this?

For example, if I copied and pasted something from a rich textbox and pasted it into notepad, all I would get is the raw text, not any other metadata such as bold, font, etc. If I paste it into wordpad, I get some metadata, but not necessarily all of it. Same with copying cells from excel, or a selection of an image from an image editor. The only application I know of that can guarantee acceptance of the entire clipboard is the one from which I just copied.

What I want to do is to copy something that has unique metadata from one program, save the clipboard state, and be able to reboot the computer and recover the same data. I can then paste it into the same application.

Is there a way to save the clipboard state? Can I install a replacement clipboard for Windows that has this ability? Is there some program that accepts the raw binary data from the clipboard?

Best Answer

This is a simple clipboard viewer that has the ability to save/load the complete state of the clipboard: http://www.freeclipboardviewer.com/

The Windows clipboard has the ability to store multiple alternative formats for data, e.g. if you copy from a web browser, you might get plain text, rich text and HTML formats stored. Many applications will also store their "native" representation of the data.

Note that for some applications (e.g. Microsoft Excel) the "native" format is actually just a reference to the source, so saving, rebooting and loading won't work quite as expected.

Related Solutions

Windows – How to access raw clipboard data on Windows

There are different tools available, but you can try this free tool called clipview:

http://www.peterbuettner.de/develop/tools/clipview/

Windows – Paste rich text with formating

Try using "Paste Special"

Notepad++ has an option, [Edit, Paste Special, Paste HTML Content]. Copying from various browsers gives different results. I've copied the same section from your question in each browser, and pasted it into Notepad++.

From Firefox:

Version:0.9
StartHTML:00000177
EndHTML:00000550
StartFragment:00000211
EndFragment:00000514
SourceURL:http://superuser.com/questions/570820/paste-rich-text-with-formating
<html><body>
<!--StartFragment-->For example, if I copied text from a webpage that read "Stackexchange" and was a clickable link to "<a href="http://stackexchange.com">http://stackexchange.com</a>",
 pasting to wordpad or some office program, will paste as clickable 
text. It would be great to be able to paste directly in notepad as<!--EndFragment-->
</body>
</html>

From Chrome:

Version:0.9
StartHTML:0000000185
EndHTML:0000002191
StartFragment:0000000221
EndFragment:0000002155
SourceURL:http://superuser.com/questions/570820/paste-rich-text-with-formating
<html>
<body>
<!--StartFragment--><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, 'Liberation Sans', 'DejaVu Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 18px; orphans: auto; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); display: inline !important; float: none;">For example, if I copied text from a webpage that read "Stackexchange" and was a clickable link to "</span><a href="http://stackexchange.com/" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 14px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); color: rgb(19, 179, 189); text-decoration: none; cursor: pointer; font-family: Arial, 'Liberation Sans', 'DejaVu Sans', sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 18px; orphans: auto; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">http://stackexchange.com</a><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, 'Liberation Sans', 'DejaVu Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 18px; orphans: auto; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); display: inline !important; float: none;">", pasting to wordpad or some office program, will paste as clickable text. It would be great to be able to paste directly in notepad as</span><!--EndFragment-->
</body>
</html>

From IE:

Version:1.0
StartHTML:000000231
EndHTML:000005122
StartFragment:000004682
EndFragment:000004996
StartSelection:000004682
EndSelection:000004996
SourceURL:http://superuser.com/questions/570820/paste-rich-text-with-formating
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">

<HTML><HEAD><TITLE>windows 7 - Paste rich text with formating - Super User</TITLE><LINK 
rel="shortcut icon" 
href="http://cdn.sstatic.net/superuser/img/favicon.ico"><LINK 
rel="apple-touch-icon image_src" 
href="http://cdn.sstatic.net/superuser/img/apple-touch-icon.png"><LINK 
title="Super User" rel=search type=application/opensearchdescription+xml 
href="/opensearch.xml">
<SCRIPT type=text/javascript 
src="http://engine.adzerk.net/z/8476/adzerk1_2_4_46,adzerk2_2_17_47?keywords=windows-7,clipboard" 
async="true"></SCRIPT>

<SCRIPT type=text/javascript src="http://www.google-analytics.com/ga.js" 
async="true"></SCRIPT>

<SCRIPT type=text/javascript src="http://edge.quantserve.com/quant.js" 
async="true"></SCRIPT>

<SCRIPT type=text/javascript 
src="//ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.7.1/jquery.min.js"></SCRIPT>

<SCRIPT type=text/javascript 
src="http://cdn.sstatic.net/js/stub.js?v=1f945f8e69cb"></SCRIPT>
<LINK rel=stylesheet type=text/css 
href="http://cdn.sstatic.net/superuser/all.css?v=8eaaa600ccef"><LINK 
rel=canonical 
href="http://superuser.com/questions/570820/paste-rich-text-with-formating"><LINK 
title="Feed for question 'Paste rich text with formating'" rel=alternate 
type=application/atom+xml href="/feeds/question/570820">
<SCRIPT type=text/javascript>

        StackExchange.ready(function () {
            StackExchange.using("postValidation", function () {
                StackExchange.postValidation.initOnBlurAndSubmit($('#post-form'), 2, 'answer');
            });


            StackExchange.question.init({hasOpenBounty:true,showAnswerHelp:true,totalCommentCount:4,shownCommentCount:4,highlightColor:'#BEB013',backgroundColor:'#FFF',questionId:570820});

            styleCode();

                StackExchange.realtime.subscribeToQuestion('3', '570820');


        });
    </SCRIPT>

<SCRIPT type=text/javascript>
        StackExchange.ready(function () {
            StackExchange.realtime.init('ws://sockets.ny.stackexchange.com:80');
            StackExchange.realtime.subscribeToInboxNotifications();
                    StackExchange.realtime.subscribeToReputationNotifications('3');
                });
    </SCRIPT>

<SCRIPT type=text/javascript>
        StackExchange.init({"stackAuthUrl":"https://stackauth.com","serverTime":1366208314,"enableUserHovercards":true,"site":{"name":"Super User","description":"Q&A for computer enthusiasts and power users","isNoticesTabEnabled":true,"recaptchaPublicKey":"6LcDNwYAAAAAAG_X1rC8kTtLBP6XS2Ym1N0n9kSY","useNewStyleFavoriteTagsEditor":true,"enableSocialMediaInSharePopup":true},"user":{"fkey":"edbc1fe628205ffa4db5a492350fc54b","isAnonymous":true}});
        StackExchange.using.setCacheBreakers({"js/prettify-full.js":"6c261bebf56a","js/moderator.js":"f96f7e4ee5dc","js/full-anon.js":"4aa778f20142","js/full.js":"2cb347042411","js/wmd.js":"605c62dd1a01","js/third-party/jquery.autocomplete.min.js":"e5f01e97f7c3","js/mobile.js":"6eb68240242f","js/help.js":"fc9fb0517db2","js/tageditor.js":"450c9e8426fc","js/tageditornew.js":"b6c68ad4c7dd","js/inline-tag-editing.js":"8e84e8a137f7","js/revisions.js":"7273bb714bba","js/review.js":"5b2105439221","js/tagsuggestions.js":"aa48ef6154df","js/post-validation.js":"98fa812e7e1a","js/explore-qlist.js":"6c836f42bd92"});

    </SCRIPT>

<SCRIPT type=text/javascript>
        StackExchange.using("gps", function() {
             StackExchange.gps.init(true);
        });
    </SCRIPT>

<SCRIPT type=text/javascript 
src="http://cdn.sstatic.net/js/full-anon.js?v=4aa778f20142" 
async="async"></SCRIPT>

<SCRIPT type=text/javascript 
src="http://cdn.sstatic.net/js/post-validation.js?v=98fa812e7e1a" 
async="async"></SCRIPT>

<SCRIPT type=text/javascript 
src="http://static.adzerk.net/Extensions/adFeedback.js"></SCRIPT>
<LINK rel=stylesheet 
href="http://static.adzerk.net/Extensions/adFeedback.css"></HEAD>

<BODY class=question-page jQuery17103772600276367371="4">

<DIV class=container>

<DIV id=content>

<DIV itemtype="http://schema.org/Article" itemscope>

<DIV id=mainbar>

<DIV id=question class=question jQuery17103772600276367371="12" 
data-questionid="570820">

<TABLE>

<TBODY>

<TR>

<TD class=postcell>

<DIV>

<DIV class=post-text itemprop="description"><!--StartFragment--><P>For example, if I copied text from a webpage that read "Stackexchange" and 
was a clickable link to "<A 
href="http://stackexchange.com">http://stackexchange.com</A>", pasting to 
wordpad or some office program, will paste as clickable text. It would be great 
to be able to paste directly in notepad as</P><!--EndFragment--></DIV>
</DIV>
</TD>
</TR>
</TBODY>
</TABLE>
</DIV>
</DIV>
</DIV>
</DIV>
</DIV>
</BODY>
</HTML>

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Windows – How to access raw clipboard data on Windows

Windows – Paste rich text with formating

Related Question