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

[bugshaw.livejournal.com]

I've noticed this happen - only when I copy-open-paste(failduetoemptyclipboard).

I get around it by doing open-copy-paste.

[miramon.livejournal.com]

I can't reproduce this in Word 2003 or 2000, it's most unlikely to be a resource problem though. Are you using the Office Clipboard to paste or Ctrl-V or right-button menu?

As a workaround you could get a shared clipboard utility like Spike (http://www.porchdogsoft.com/products/spike/) which stores your last 20 clipboard items (or more if you put them in the library folder).

[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.

[spride.livejournal.com]

I can't reproduce it either on a low spec machine (PII 366 MHz, 296MB RAM, XP SP2, Word 2003 SP1). What OS, hardware spec?

[tamaranth.livejournal.com]

Pentium 4, 2 gHz, 384MB RAM, Word 2002, XP.

[tamaranth.livejournal.com]

This version of Word is always terribly slow to load, too.

[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.

[tamaranth.livejournal.com]

I use Ctrl-C, Ctrl-V as a matter of course: have tried the alternate 'Paste' options and they don't work either.

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.

[tamaranth.livejournal.com]

It's like the old joke: "Doctor, it hurts when I do this." "Then don't do that." Still wish I knew why, though: it seems a really basic thing, and very odd side-effect of opening an app.

[fastfwd.livejournal.com]

Well, I don't know the technical explanation but here's what it is: you have to open Word before you copy-paste. Then everything is just fine. What I figured was that for some reason, Word insists on being present for the whole cut and paste, not just the paste. Probably some kind of snob thing.

[bugshaw.livejournal.com]

Speculation: There are different sorts of clipboard that each program uses by default - copy into one, then open Word with its "Office clipboard" which is empty and you unable to paste anything from it? Perhaps a tiny preference you can set to say which clipboard you want an application to access by default.

The above may be bollocks, but it's consistent and credible bollocks.

[bugshaw.livejournal.com]

According to MS Word Help (searching on "clipboard"):-
The Office Clipboard is related to the system Clipboard in the following ways:
When you copy multiple items to the Office Clipboard, the last item you copy is always copied to the system Clipboard.
When you clear the Office Clipboard, the system Clipboard is also cleared.
When you use the Paste command, the Paste button, or the shortcut keys (CTRL+V), you paste the contents of the system Clipboard, not the Office Clipboard.

So I think the question is refined to: When you open a MS Office app (and there are no other MS Office apps running), does it empty the system Clipboard - and if so, WHY??????

[spride.livejournal.com]

Then it ought to work. As Windows apps at work wiped out my Palm calendar today for no reason I wouldn't presume to hypothesise why it doesn't. I'm afraid I got so tired of this sort of crap I bought an iMac for home instead, so at least I get evenings and weekends off. :-)

[miramon.livejournal.com]

Office apps loading slowly sometimes means that they're trying to run autoload macros. If you've got custom macros in there, they could be messing with the clipboard.

[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.

[marypcb.livejournal.com]

no, Office apps don't normally clear the system clipboard without asking you if you want to, when you exit the application, if you have copied something enormous.

You can tell Word not to use the Office clipboard, but it won't be using it until it's open anyway so I don't think it's likely to be an interaction between the Office and System clipboards

what clears the clipboard is:
an app sending a flush message because you agreed you didn't want the 3Gb photo you just pasted into another photo on the system clipboard
something blank getting copied into the system clipboard usually by an add-in or macro doing something weird
the OLE connection between apps and/or between apps and the system breaking down