Macros for recording the source location of pasted text, images, e

[nuk15]

Hi everyone,

Can anyone tell me if it is possible to write a macros that will record the
source location and date of any text, images, etc, that have been either
'copy-pasted', inserted or embedded into a Word document?

E.g. when writing a document in Word XP/2003, I often copy-paste and insert
text and images from webpages, other Office files (Word, Excel, PowerPoint)
and folders (My Pictures, etc). But I often forget to write references and
then can't remember where and when I got the information from. I thought it
would be extremely useful if a macros could be automatically run on starting
Word that would record the location and time (e.g. C:\My Documents\... or
http://... at 03/10/2008 15:00:00) of any imported information.

I guess this would be similar to automatic hyper-linking, but rather than
making it visible to the user, have it logged within the metadata so that
another macros or a metadata extraction tool like can report on the recorded
information.

Any help anyone can give with regards to this would be very much appreciated
as I've got no idea where to start! Many thanks in advance,

Nick H
(e-mail address removed)

 

[fumei via OfficeKB.com]

Not really possible.

If you copy something from a webpage, you are copying it into the clipboard.
When you paste it, you are pasting it from the clipboard. No information on
source is available.

Ditto for inserting.

Embedding is another story. There will data available.

"I often forget to write references " What can I say? You can try harder.
the problem is with "any imported information"

The word 'any" is too broad, and simply put, some methods of bringing stuff
into Word do not have the information you seem to want.

Now you COULD override the Paste command, so you get a message that insists
you DO write in source reference. I would be hesitant to go that route
though. You would have to spec out your requirements carefully. What
EXACTLY do you want to happen every time you Paste anything?

 

[nuk15]

Thank you for the reply. Well I normally do get all the references down, but
when citing lots of different sources it becomes quite tedious (even using
EndNote, etc) and hence sometimes me and my collegues can make errors.

OK, specifically my requirement is to have the source location and date to
be recorded within the metadata of the word document whenever anything on the
clipboard is pasted into the document. So I'm guessing the recording would
have to take place when the text, image, etc, is copied to the clipboard.

Do you think then that it might be possible to do this with a taskbar-based
VB application that records a 'copy' action and makes that information
available to be recorded in Word metadata when it is pasted?

 

[Barbara]

The clipboard is a feature of Windows, not of Office. If you really want to
change the behavior of your operating system, you are well outside the scope
of Word macros, and this discussion forum is not really the right place for
your question. But good luck to you!

 

[Karel & Access]

It is faster to be your own Macro in this case......?

I faced the same issue, and I think that because the information sources are
so vast, and so hard to find, you stumble on a solutions while reading
something unrelated, BUT, that contained the answer you searched for, for
hours, LAST WEEK?

Clipboard arranges the clips in the order you clipped them, so if you had
screen captured prg (pre Loaded) that would enable you to to capture a
selected (Small) area, you choose, that contains your "Source Info", you
could simly capture it as a small pic?

And when you finally past- ALL - from the clipboard, everything would be
also in order, with the source info (picture) appearing above your "clip".
Now you can setup Hyperlinks from the text clips to the sources which I would
imagine appears at the end of your Doc.

I hope you find this works for you.