Microsoft ate my words

[tamaranth]

Can anyone explain why, if I copy a chunk of text (Ctrl-C) and then open Microsoft Word (2002: may do Luddite thing and revert to 97), the clipboard empties itself?

This happens every time -- I write in NoteTab, spell-check and layout in Word -- and I'd vaguely assumed that what didn't work was pasting into Word. Now it looks as though I can't paste anywhere else, either.

Obviously not an insurmountable problem, but vexing. I presume it's to do with Word gobbling up all available resources. Any advance on that? saying 'use a pen and paper' is probably not very original

Comments

[marypcb.livejournal.com]

I'd use a clipboard hoarder like ClipMate www.thornsoft.com which will keep copies of hundreds of copied things as necessary.

[tamaranth.livejournal.com]

I'm not installing more software to fix something that should work in the first place. As bugshaw suggests, the easiest option is not to do the thing that doesn't work. But I do want to know why it doesn't work.

[marypcb.livejournal.com]

It could be a problem with Object Linking and Embedding (OLE); I've read of people fixing it by taking all the OLE*.* files out of Windows, Windows/System32 and anywhere else you find them and then re-installing Office. The Microsoft Works Suite Add-in for Word can cause the problem, other add-ins might do the same - http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/Customization/CheckIfAddinsInstalled.htm. It's going to be soemthing weird and obscure and low-level; I agree it certainly shouldn't do it and it would be worth tying the free Microsoft support line to see if they have any ideas. But I've been using a clipboard monitor for years because it's so handy not to have to paste things straight away so you might find it useful too.