CODEWITHSUNDEEP
windowsclipboard
dave walker
dave walker

Reputation: 3108

Programmatically determine clipboard source information

When a user copies text to the clipboard, is it possible in Windows to programmatically identify the source file (and/or URL) and text position?

I have looked at a bunch of clipboard management applications (Ditto, clipboardFusion, ArsClip, and ClipDiary) and none appears to record the source of a clip.

It is my belief that this functionality in not possible, but I would like another opinion or two before I abandon my attempts.

I currently think the only way to achieve the desired behavior is to create an add-on / extension for every application that will be copied from. The extension would override the applications normal copy to clipboard behavior with a new format that adds the additional information. The key applications for me would be adobe acrobat (or another pdf reader) and a browser.

Upvotes: 1

Views: 498

Answers (1)

Eph
Eph

Reputation: 1321

Windows does not require any source information to be given when setting clipboard data. Additionally, the only information needed to enable calling that function is a window handle. As such, the best windows could give you in a general case is the window handle that set the clipboard data via GetClipboardOwner.

Some applications set some of the formats on the clipboard to the source location of other data on the clipboard, but again in a general sense, there need not even be any source data; an application can just place random arbitrary data on the clipboard.

For your specific use case, you may be able to write a grease-monkey script to add your meta-data, and as firefox/chrome can display PDFs you might even be able to use the same script for PDFs.

Upvotes: 1

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