On Paste command Word doesn't actually pastes from Clipboard - why

[Stro]

Open any (or some, at least) web site with pictures in it using Internet
Explorer. Select any area with pictures and text, copy it to Clipboard.
Switch to Word (in my case it's 2000 but it could be 2002, as far as I
remember) and paste selection.
What happens: instead of pasting data from Clipboard Word is re-getting data
directly from the web-site. Often you just don't notice it but sometimes,
when it re-gets a picture, you can see a message in status panel "retrieving
picture xyz.fig..." with small progress bar. And if this website for some
reasons doesn't allow to get picture/text/whatever for the second time, or
it's just overloaded, Word is hanging indefinitely and can be stopped only by
killing its process. In the best case it pastes selection more or less
quickly, in average case paste operation takes some noticable time - even for
short simple text fragment, even for one word!
The question is: is it possible to turn this "feature" off and force Word to
behave itself and paste data from the Clipboard, not from website?

 

[Genine]

Perhaps the pictures on the website aren't actually embedded in that page,
but are links to another area of that site. If so, then if you copy it and
paste it into Word, it will copy the links not the pictures.

Have you tried right clicking on the picture and saving it locally? You can
then paste it or link to it in a Word document from your local machine.

Genine

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

When you copy graphics from a Web site, what you are actually copying to the
Clipboard is a link to the location where the graphic is stored. So when you
paste the graphic, you're really pasting this link. To solve this problem,
paste once, then select the pasted object and press Ctrl+Shift+F9 to unlink
it. Then copy the pasted object; what you have on the Clipboard will then be
the object itself and not a link to it.

Alternatively, instead of pasting the object the first time, use Paste
Special and choose an appropriate format.

 

[Stro]

It doen't matter if the picture has a link or not.

And as I wrote, sometimes I saw a noticable delay in pasting even one word
from the page!

 

[Stro]

When you copy graphics from a Web site, what you are actually copying to the

Clipboard is a link to the location where the graphic is stored. So when you
paste the graphic, you're really pasting this link.

It's not true. IE should copy both the link to original location and the
graphics itself. To prove it, try to paste the same fragment to a new Outlook
message in HTML format - the paste is instant and the graphics is there. The
only problem is it doesn't keep all the fonts and layout precisely, otherwise
I'd use it first and then paste it to Word.

Besides, sometimes I saw a noticable delay when pasting a single word! The
graphics is just more noticable becasue it larger. So, at least sometimes,
Word re-gets text from website, too. It's just ridiculous.

To solve this problem,
paste once, then select the pasted object and press Ctrl+Shift+F9 to unlink
it. Then copy the pasted object; what you have on the Clipboard will then be
the object itself and not a link to it.

My main complain was too long time and you suggested to increase it even
more. Sorry, it won't go.

Alternatively, instead of pasting the object the first time, use Paste
Special and choose an appropriate format.

I tried it, of course. Unfortunately, there's no appropriate format that
would keep exact page layout and fonts (except for original HTML format, that
is)

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

Are you still connected to the Internet when you paste the graphic into an
Outlook message? If you press Alt+F9 in Word, what do you see where the
graphic is located?

 

[Stro]

Are you still connected to the Internet when you paste the graphic into an

Outlook message?

Yes, I am always connected to Internet.

If you press Alt+F9 in Word, what do you see where the
graphic is located?

It could be anything. For example, these two cases:

{INCLUDEPICTURE
"http://netgsel.safaribooksonline.com/portals/netgsel/images/banner.jpg" \*
MERGEFORMATINET }

{HYPERLINK "http://netgsel.safaribooksonline.com/." \o "Safari Enterprise
Library home page" }

NB. Just because those are links, it doesn't mean this was all the clipboard
had. It is Word who decided to paste data this way.

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

You've just proved my point. You are not pasting the graphic itself but a
link to it. If you disconnect from the Internet, you will see a red X
instead of your picture.

 

[Stro]

You've just proved my point. You are not pasting the graphic itself but a

link to it.

It's not me, it's Word which decides to paste the link but not graphics.
Outlook's New Message window pastes the graphics Ok.

If you disconnect from the Internet, you will see a red X
instead of your picture.

Ok but so what? The graphics is here, on my PC, just downloaded. It's still
ridiculous (and a shame) that two MS products can't do basic copy-paste
operation between them.

The bottom line is, I can't change it. And that's a pity.

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

No, the graphic is not on your PC (it may be cached, but not actually
saved). Windows is copying what it sees, which is a link to the graphic.
Rarely are graphics actually embedded in Web pages. If you examine the HTML
of a Web page, you will see that every graphic is a link to a picture file
stored elsewhere.

I am not an Outlook user, so I can't speak to what is happening there, but
try this test (if you can): paste your graphic into an Outlook message and
send it to yourself. When you receive the message, disconnect from the
Internet (set Outlook offline) before opening it. Do you see the graphic, or
does Outlook try to connect to get it?

 

[Stro]

No, the graphic is not on your PC (it may be cached, but not actually

saved).

I never sad it's saved on disk. But it cached exactly on my PC, otherwise I
wouldn't see it. The clipboard is not a folder on hard disk, it's an
in-memory structure.

Windows is copying what it sees, which is a link to the graphic.

Windows just provides Clipboard service, it's responsibility of applications
to copy-paste data. Internet Explorer and Word, in my case.

Rarely are graphics actually embedded in Web pages. If you examine the HTML
of a Web page, you will see that every graphic is a link to a picture file
stored elsewhere.

Don't even start this. I'm a software engineer with 18 years of experience,
MS Windows platfom mostly.

I am not an Outlook user, so I can't speak to what is happening there, but
try this test (if you can): paste your graphic into an Outlook message and
send it to yourself. When you receive the message, disconnect from the
Internet (set Outlook offline) before opening it. Do you see the graphic, or
does Outlook try to connect to get it?

It depends on Outlook format option "send pictures from Internet". If it's
set on, Outlook sends pictures along with HTML text. Otherwise it sends just
links to graphics.

Ok, if you have any graphics software (like Adobe Photoshop etc.) try to
right-click on a picture in web page open in IE, copy it to clipboard, switch
to the graphics application and paste it. Picture will be copied instantly -
because it's already downloaded on your PC. Graphics application doesn't
re-gets it from Internet.

Anyway, thanks for trying to help but I see it's leading us nowhere.
Bye-bye.

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

I would assume that graphics applications don't support links and therefore
have to copy the picture itself. That's not the way Word works. If you want
Word to paste the picture, you have to use Paste Special.

 

[John Alexander]

I have a similar problem: When I select and copy text from a website, then
try to paste in WORD, nothing gets posted and WORD locks-up. Thanks for the
help