Paste Formatted Text Using VBA

A visitor to OutlookForums, PGilm is using VBA to create a meeting request and wanted to paste formatted text into the body.

While it's fairly straightforward if you are pasting into a mail item, you can't use HTMLBody or olHTMLFormat with non-mail items. You can use Word's 'Keep Source Formatting' paste command, provided you are using Word as the email editor. (It's the only editor in Outlook 2007 and newer.)

You will need to set a reference to the Word Object Model in the VB editor's Tools, References menu.

This sample code creates an appointment form with the clipboard contents pasted in the appointment body.

To remove the formatting, use wdFormatPlainText.

Sub PasteFormattedClipboard()
    On Error Resume Next
        Dim olCal: Set olCal = Application.CreateItem(1)
        olCal.Subject = "Testing " & Now
        olCal.Location = "Here"
olCal.Display
     
Dim objItem As Object
Dim objInsp As Outlook.Inspector
Dim objWord As Word.Application
Dim objDoc As Word.Document
Dim objSel As Word.Selection

Set objItem = olCal ' Application.ActiveInspector.currentItem
Set objInsp = objItem.GetInspector
Set objDoc = objInsp.WordEditor
Set objWord = objDoc.Application
Set objSel = objWord.Selection

objSel.PasteAndFormat (wdFormatOriginalFormatting)
'objSel.PasteAndFormat (Word.WdRecoveryType.wdFormatOriginalFormatting)

Set objItem = Nothing
Set objInsp = Nothing
Set objDoc = Nothing
Set objWord = Nothing
Set objSel = Nothing
End Sub

PasteAndFormat members

The following is a list of the PasteAndFormat options available to use. wdFormatOriginalFormatting and wdFormatPlainText are the most frequently used paste formats that would cover most situations, however you can use other paste formats.