How to use the Office 2000 Clipboard

Office 2000 includes a new clipboard called the Office Clipboard. You can use this clipboard to collect and paste multiple items. For example, you can copy a drawing object in Microsoft Excel, switch to Microsoft PowerPoint and copy a bulleted list, switch to Microsoft Internet Explorer and copy a page of text, and then switch to Microsoft Word and paste the collection of copied items.

NOTE: You can copy items while using any program that provides copy and cut functionality, but you can only paste items into Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Microsoft Access, or Microsoft Outlook.

What Is Copied to the Office Clipboard

The Office Clipboard automatically copies multiple items when you do any of the following:

• Copy or cut two different items consecutively in the same program.
• Copy an item, paste the item, and then copy another item in the same program.

In versions of Excel earlier than Excel 2000, you can copy and paste an item anywhere within a worksheet until you perform an action that clears the clipboard. The Office Clipboard retains information about pasted items so that you can perform other tasks without clearing the clipboard and then paste items as you need them. The Office Clipboard does not replace the Windows Clipboard, which can only store a single item.

Limitations of the Office Clipboard

The Office Clipboard has the following limitations:

• The Office Clipboard can hold 4 megabytes (MB) of data or 12 items, whichever occurs first. If you attempt to copy a selection that is larger than 4 MB, you may receive an error message and you will be prompted to clear the Clipboard or close it.
• You cannot customize or resize the Office Clipboard Toolbar.
• You cannot paste a formula to the Office Clipboard.
• If the Office Clipboard is not visible or is turned off, selections that you copy using CTRL+C overwrite any previous item copied to the clipboard. In other words, the Office Clipboard behaves like the Windows clipboard. To copy multiple items to the Office Clipboard by pressing CTRL+C, turn on the Office Clipboard. To do this, point to Toolbars on the View menu, and then click Clipboard.
  
  NOTE: Pressing CTRL+V always pastes only the last item copied to the clipboard.
• Using the Paste All command pastes all items in a column.
• The data stored in the Office Clipboard is stored in HTML format.
• The contents of the Office Clipboard are deleted when the current session ends. If you have one Office program running, the contents of the Office Clipboard are deleted when you close that program. If you have multiple Office programs running, the contents of the Office Clipboard are deleted after you close the last Office program.
• There is no Visual Basic for Applications object model for the Office Clipboard, so there is no way to programmatically manipulate it.
• If the same item is copied twice in succession, the Office Clipboard does not store the item twice. If you copy the same item twice, but not in succession, two copies of the item are stored on the Office Clipboard. The Office Clipboard does not store two different items that are copied in succession if the calculated value of both items is the identical. For example, if you enter the value 1 in cell A1 and the formula =A1 in cell A2, display the Office Clipboard, copy cell A1, and then copy cell A2, only one copy of the item is placed on the clipboard.

Controlling the Office Clipboard

As you copy items, the Office Clipboard automatically appears on your desktop. You can close it if you do not want it to appear automatically. After closing the toolbar three times, you are prompted to permanently close it. If you permanently close the clipboard, to redisplay it, on the View menu, click Toolbars and then click Clipboard. If you want to reset the automatic appearance functionality, right-click the Assistant, click Options and on the Options tab, click Reset my Tips.

Clearing the Office Clipboard

You can easily clear all the items that are stored in the Office Clipboard. To clear the Office Clipboard, click Clear All on the Clipboard toolbar.

By modifying the Windows registry, you can turn off the Office Clipboard so that it no longer automatically appears in any Office program. For more information about how to do this, please click the article number below to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: