Formatting text before sending to clipboard

I build up a text string in VB and then I want to send it to the Clipboard so that I can paste it in the body of an email. How do I go about to format (e.g. bold, underline and colored text) that text in the string in VB so that the formatting will be pasted in the email if possible.

Any pointers appreciated.

Use a Rich Text Box, which is the only text control that allows formatted text to be mixed. You can have a colored font in a textbox, but not two in the same textbox

An RTB can alternate whatever you want.

Most of the information in the string I'm building comes from databases. I then copy the string to the clipboard so I can paste it in the email. Currently I then format the text in the email to show the bold and underline etc.

I wanted to build the string already formatted before sending it to the clipboard. If I use a RTB, wouldn't I still need to format the text manually before sending it to the clipboard? Can the string be formatted programmatically in the RTB? I've never used a RTB before :blush:

I will have a look at the RTB and see if it could work for what I want to do.

I've created a .RTF file that was just a table with about 40 fields (made in Word), and filled, using [1] ... [41] in each of the boxes that I wanted to fill in with fields. I filled in the other fields with fixed text.

It's not that hard to format on the fly, after that.

Code:

---

    .Find "[Text]"
    .SelText = "" & vbCrLf
    .SelFontSize = 14
    .SelText = Trim(Line1) & vbCrLf
    .SelFontSize = 14
    .SelText = Trim(Line2) & vbCrLf
    .Find Trim(Line1)
    .SelAlignment = rtfCenter
    .SelStart = 0
    .Find "Glass Block Panel Invoice"
    .SelBold = True
    .SelStart = 0

---

I can get the text formatted in the RTB programmatically. The text in the RTB looks like this after I formatted it:

Quote:

---

This is the text in the richtextbox. This text I want bold. And this text I want underlined.

---

When sending it to the clipboard with:

Code:

---

Clipboard.Clear
Clipboard.SetText RichTextBox1.Text

---

it gets pasted in the email without any formatting:

Quote:

---

This is the text in the richtextbox. This text I want bold. And this text I want underlined.

---

When sending it to the clipboard with:

Code:

---

Clipboard.Clear
Clipboard.SetText RichTextBox1.TextRTF

---

This is what is pasted in the email:

Quote:

---

{\rtf1\ansi\ansicpg1252\deff0{\fonttbl{\f0\fnil\fcharset0 MS Sans Serif;}}
\viewkind4\uc1\pard\lang7177\f0\fs17 This is the text in the richtextbox. \b This text I want bold.\b0 \ul And this text I want underlined\ulnone .
\par }

---

So it seems that the RTB is not going to work or I'm missing something. I think the format I need should be HTML but I have no idea how this works.

You can paste formatted text into a RTB, but gettext is text

Email can paste most rich text and preserve formatting.

You are failing to set the clipboard get text to the Rich Text format. So, by default your are getting the ANSI text for the RTF code. To set the text to RTF try:

Clipboard.SetText Richtextbox1.SelRTF, vbCFRTF

See the VB6 help file for clipboard formats, etc.

If I use Clipboard.SetText Richtextbox1.SelRTF, vbCFRTF and try to paste into the email, nothing gets pasted. Leaving out the vbCFRTF gets the string pasted with all the RTF codes as below:

Quote:

---

{\rtf1\ansi\ansicpg1252\deff0{\fonttbl{\f0\fnil\fcharset0 MS Sans Serif;}}
\viewkind4\uc1\pard\lang7177\f0\fs17 This is the text in the richtextbox. \b This text I want bold.\b0 \ul And this text I want underlined\ulnone .
\par }

---

Could the problem be with the Thunderbird email program?

Should have said that from the beginning. That could be, as most email programs do HTML, not RTF. Microsoft Outlook does both

That's got to be it. Can't test Thunderbird... don't use it. It works fine both in Outlook and Outlook Express and Vista Mail.

Is there a way to build a HTML string then?

Sure. It helps if you know it though... http://www.w3schools.com/

Thanks. I'll look into it and see if I can get it figured out.