Outlook should keep files in the clipboard after closing a window

When you open a message (in a new window) in Outlook 2007, and copy one or
more files contained in this message, and then close the window, the file is
not kept in the clipboard. I have to copy the file and paste it before
closing the window.

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Edson wrote:

When you open a message (in a new window) in Outlook 2007, and copy one or
more files contained in this message, and then close the window, the file is
not kept in the clipboard. I have to copy the file and paste it before
closing the window.

Learn to differentiate between the Office Clipboard and the Windows
clipboard. They are NOT the same. The Office Clipboard will obviously
disappear when you no longer have the Office component loaded anymore.

The Windows clipboard holds only 1 clip at a time. In an Office
component, the last clip gets saved to both the Office Clipboard and to
the Windows clipboard. The Office Clipboard will save a history of up
to the last 25 clips wherease the Windows clipboard can only hold a
single clip (the last one). So when you exit an Office component, you
no longer have the Office Clipboard available and will lose that 25-clip
history and just get the clip that was last duplicated into the Windows
clipboard.

You cannot copy *files* in an e-mail into the clipboard (either for
Office Clipboard or Windows clipboard). There is no such thing as a
file in an e-mail, anyway. The "file" is a long encoded string of text
sitting in the body of your e-mail within a MIME section. All e-mails
gets sent as plain text. HTML is text. RTF is text with a MIME section
for the .dat attachment. Attached files are encoded into long text
strings placed in a MIME section in the body of the e-mail. There is no
*file* floating along with your e-mails.

When you "Copy" an attachment, you are requesting to commit an action
which is to extract the encoded text string into a file. If you unload
the Office component then the source (of where is the encoded content)
is lost. You longer have the handler running (Outlook) that will
extract the long text string from the MIME part in your e-mail and
decode it to save into a file. Without the handler running to do the
extraction and to know where to access the source for that extraction,
the clipboard hasn't a clue of what is the source. In fact, if you
"copy" the attachment into Office Clipboard and then exit the Office
component, you get a warning message that says "You placed a large
amount of data on the Clipboard. Do you want this data to be available
to Microsoft Outlook or other programs after you close this window?".
Selecting "Yes" puts the *content* in the Windows clipboard but that is
of no value to you since you can't make that into a file but can only
paste that content into somewhere else.

If you want to "copy" an attachment then leave running the handler
(Outlook) that is needed to locate the source of the content and to
perform the extraction of the attachment from the long text string
embedded in the MIME section in the body of the e-mail. Otherwise, get
in the habit of using "Save As" to have the handler (Outlook)
immediately extract the long encoded text string in the MIME section
(aka "attachment") to save into a file. It's not Outlook's fault that
you closed it and then no longer have availability to its extraction
function or even of knowing where is the source for the extraction.

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This post is a suggestion for Microsoft, ...
snipped - this useless fluff will disappear when Microsoft drops their
NNTP service