Asked By Jeff Zeitlin
04-Mar-10 07:35 AM
Applies to: Word 2003, Excel 2003
Environment: Windows XP Professional/Service Pack 3, AD network, user
profile on workstation; user documents on network folder.
Problem description: The user will be working on a document (workbook,
if in Excel), and doing a lot of cut/paste or copy/paste operations
within the document. This will work fine for a while, but then, for no
obvious reason, the Office Clipboard will appear, and cut/paste or
copy/paste appears to stop working. Inspection reveals that every cut
or copy results in TWO items being placed on the clipboard, the first
being the data desired to cut/copy; the second being an object of a
format unrecognized by the Office clipboard. If the unrecognized object
is deleted, or if the entire clipboard is cleared, the operation will
succeed, but a new unrecognized item will immediately be created. It is
thus impossible to truly clear the clipboard, and using the default
paste commands - either via the secondary-button-click menu or the
Ctrl-V keystroke - fails to paste the desired data into the document;
only clicking on the identified formatted item in the clipboard panel
will paste the desired data.
Once this happens, it persists, including across sessions. The only way
we have found to "correct" the problem is to delete the user's settings
for Office 2003 (which we do by completely deleting the user's profile
on the workstation, and letting the system create a new one when the
user next authenticates to the ActiveDirectory network). However, the
problem invariably returns, but the circumstances are not predictable.
One unsatisfactory temporary workaround that one user has found is to
keep the Office Clipboard panel open, and immediately after any paste
operation, manually clear the clipboard. There is no certainty that this
prevents the problem from recurring, although so far it has been
successful.
Because of the rarity of this problem - and because it appears to be
tied to specific users - we believe that there is something that the
user is doing (inadvertently) that is causing this.
Can anyone provide some insight into this issue? Please do not merely
tell us to upgrade to Office 2007; at present, this is NOT an option; it
has been rejected by the decision makers in our organization.