Office 2000 includes a new clipboard called the ‘Office Clipboard’. This clipboard can now be used to collect and paste multiple items. For example, you can copy a drawing object from Word and paste it into Powerpoint, you can even copy a page of text from Internet Explorer and then paste it into Word.
This is particularly useful in Excel and you may carry out a lot of copying and pasting when you first begin to set up your spreadsheets. Now you can see what you have copied even multiple items, very clearly on the Office Clipboard. As you copy your items the Office Clipboard will automatically appear on your desktop. The Office Clipboard automatically copies multiple items when you either:-
1. Copy or cut two different items in the same program i.e Copy two different items from Excel.
2.Copy one item then paste it, 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 actually 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.
Some people find the Office Clipboard annoying so if you don’t want the clipboard on your desktop then close it three times and you will prompted to close it permanently.
If you change your mind then you can re- display by selecting:-
- View
- Menu
- Office Clipboard
If you want to clear all of the information stored in the Office Clipboard use the Clear All button on the Clipboard menu.
Even though its really useful the Office Clipboard has its limitations.
1. It can only hold 4MB of data or up to 12 items, going over this limit usually results in an error, you will need to clear or close the clipboard.
2. Formulas cannot be pasted to the clipboard.
3. You cannot re-size or customise the clipboard in anyway.
4. The clipboard if not visible or in use will act like the Windows clipboard, that is any selections you copy using CTR + C will overwrite any previous selection, to do multiple selections you need to have the Office Clipboard visible.
5.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.
6. If you copy the same item or cells twice in succession then clipboard will store on ly one copy, but if you copy the same item twice but not in succession then clipboard saves two separate copies.
7. 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.