How to add HTML code to the clipboard by using Visual Basic Or VBA

Developers can use the CF_HTML clipboard format (HTML Format) to share HTML data with other applications that understand HTML, such as Microsoft Office and Microsoft Internet Explorer.

CF_HTML is entirely a text-based format that includes a description, a context, and a fragment within that context. When you are building data to send to the clipboard, you must include a description of the data to indicate the clipboard version and the offsets for the context and fragment. You can use the PutHTMLClipboard procedure described later in this article to simplify this task.
 

Steps to create a sample project

  1. Start a new Standard EXE Project in Visual Basic. Form1 is created by default.
  2. Add two CommandButton controls to Form1. Change the Caption property of Command1 to Put HTML, and change the Caption property of Command2 to Get HTML.
  3. On the Project menu, choose Add Module to add a standard BAS module to the project.
  4. Add the following code to the module window:
    Option Explicit
        Private Declare Function CloseClipboard Lib "user32" () As Long
        Private Declare Function OpenClipboard Lib "user32" (ByVal hWnd As Long) _
        As Long
        Private Declare Function GlobalAlloc Lib "kernel32" ( _
        ByVal wFlags As Long, ByVal dwBytes As Long) As Long
        Private Declare Function SetClipboardData Lib "user32" ( _
        ByVal wFormat As Long, ByVal hMem As Long) As Long
        Private Declare Function EmptyClipboard Lib "user32" () As Long
        Private Declare Function RegisterClipboardFormat Lib "user32" Alias _
        "RegisterClipboardFormatA" (ByVal lpString As String) As Long
        Private Declare Function GlobalLock Lib "kernel32" (ByVal hMem As Long) _
        As Long
        Private Declare Function GlobalUnlock Lib "kernel32" ( _
        ByVal hMem As Long) As Long
        Private Declare Sub CopyMemory Lib "kernel32" Alias "RtlMoveMemory" ( _
        pDest As Any, pSource As Any, ByVal cbLength As Long)
        Private Declare Function GetClipboardData Lib "user32" ( _
        ByVal wFormat As Long) As Long
        Private Declare Function lstrlen Lib "kernel32" Alias "lstrlenA" ( _
        ByVal lpData As Long) As Long
        Private Const m_sDescription = _
        "Version:1.0" & vbCrLf & _
        "StartHTML:aaaaaaaaaa" & vbCrLf & _
        "EndHTML:bbbbbbbbbb" & vbCrLf & _
        "StartFragment:cccccccccc" & vbCrLf & _
        "EndFragment:dddddddddd" & vbCrLf
        Private m_cfHTMLClipFormat As Long
        Function RegisterCF() As Long
        'Register the HTML clipboard format
        If (m_cfHTMLClipFormat = 0) Then
        m_cfHTMLClipFormat = RegisterClipboardFormat("HTML Format")
        End If
        RegisterCF = m_cfHTMLClipFormat
        End Function
        Public Sub PutHTMLClipboard(sHtmlFragment As String, _
        Optional sContextStart As String = "<HTML><BODY>", _
        Optional sContextEnd As String = "</BODY></HTML>")
        Dim sData As String
        If RegisterCF = 0 Then Exit Sub
        'Add the starting and ending tags for the HTML fragment
        sContextStart = sContextStart & "<!--StartFragment -->"
        sContextEnd = "<!--EndFragment -->" & sContextEnd
        'Build the HTML given the description, the fragment and the context.
        'And, replace the offset place holders in the description with values
        'for the offsets of StartHMTL, EndHTML, StartFragment and EndFragment.
        sData = m_sDescription & sContextStart & sHtmlFragment & sContextEnd
        sData = Replace(sData, "aaaaaaaaaa", _
        Format(Len(m_sDescription), "0000000000"))
        sData = Replace(sData, "bbbbbbbbbb", Format(Len(sData), "0000000000"))
        sData = Replace(sData, "cccccccccc", Format(Len(m_sDescription & _
        sContextStart), "0000000000"))
        sData = Replace(sData, "dddddddddd", Format(Len(m_sDescription & _
        sContextStart & sHtmlFragment), "0000000000"))
        'Add the HTML code to the clipboard
        If CBool(OpenClipboard(0)) Then
        Dim hMemHandle As Long, lpData As Long
        hMemHandle = GlobalAlloc(0, Len(sData) + 10)
        If CBool(hMemHandle) Then
        lpData = GlobalLock(hMemHandle)
        If lpData <> 0 Then
        CopyMemory ByVal lpData, ByVal sData, Len(sData)
        GlobalUnlock hMemHandle
        EmptyClipboard
        SetClipboardData m_cfHTMLClipFormat, hMemHandle
        End If
        End If
        Call CloseClipboard
        End If
        End Sub
        Public Function GetHTMLClipboard() As String
        Dim sData As String
        If RegisterCF = 0 Then Exit Function
        If CBool(OpenClipboard(0)) Then
        Dim hMemHandle As Long, lpData As Long
        Dim nClipSize As Long
        GlobalUnlock hMemHandle
        'Retrieve the data from the clipboard
        hMemHandle = GetClipboardData(m_cfHTMLClipFormat)
        If CBool(hMemHandle) Then
        lpData = GlobalLock(hMemHandle)
        If lpData <> 0 Then
        nClipSize = lstrlen(lpData)
        sData = String(nClipSize + 10, 0)
        Call CopyMemory(ByVal sData, ByVal lpData, nClipSize)
        Dim nStartFrag As Long, nEndFrag As Long
        Dim nIndx As Long
        'If StartFragment appears in the data's description,
        'then retrieve the offset specified in the description
        'for the start of the fragment. Likewise, if EndFragment
        'appears in the description, then retrieve the
        'corresponding offset.
        nIndx = InStr(sData, "StartFragment:")
        If nIndx Then
        nStartFrag = CLng(Mid(sData, _
        nIndx + Len("StartFragment:"), 10))
        End If
        nIndx = InStr(sData, "EndFragment:")
        If nIndx Then
        nEndFrag = CLng(Mid(sData, nIndx + Len("EndFragment:"), 10))
        End If
        'Return the fragment given the starting and ending
        'offsets
        If (nStartFrag > 0 And nEndFrag > 0) Then
        GetHTMLClipboard = Mid(sData, nStartFrag + 1, _
        (nEndFrag - nStartFrag))
        End If
        End If
        End If
        Call CloseClipboard
        End If
        End Function
        
  5. Add the following code in the code window for Form1:
    Private Sub Command1_Click()
        Dim sFrag As String, sStart As String, sEnd As String
        sStart = "<HTML><BODY><FONT FACE=Arial SIZE=1 COLOR=BLUE>"
        sFrag = "<B>This is bold</B> and <I>this is italic.</I>"
        sEnd = "</FONT></BODY></HTML>"
        PutHTMLClipboard sFrag, sStart, sEnd
        End Sub
        Private Sub Command2_Click()
        MsgBox GetHTMLClipboard
        End Sub
        
  6. Press the F5 key to start the Visual Basic program. Click Put HTML to add the HTML data to the clipboard. Then, click Get HTML to retrieve the clipboard data. Note that a message box displays the HTML fragment.
  7. Start Microsoft Word (or any application that recognizes the HTML Format for the clipboard). Paste the clipboard contents to a new document to examine the results of the HTML code contained on the clipboard.

Additional note

Using an approach that sends HTML code to the clipboard might be especially beneficial for Office Automation clients. For example, if you have an Automation client that needs to generate formatted data for cells in Microsoft Excel or paragraphs in Microsoft Word, you could build the data in HTML code, send it to the clipboard, and then paste it into the application. By using this technique, you could reduce the number of out-of-process calls to the Automation client.

posted on 2009-01-20 09:43  Wind Snail  阅读(896)  评论(0编辑  收藏  举报

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