Copying an Excel range to the clipboard as a picture

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I want to copy an Excel range and paste it in (say) Facebook Messenger. Standard Excel functions don't do it, and I've seen suggestions involving creating a temporary chart, but that's clunky. Looking for a simple way to do it, I stumbled on a somewhat bizarre solution that works.

First create a shape of any size,say a little square, 1 pixel in size, that can be tucked away somewhere on the sheet. Then copy your range, select the shape, and paste to the sheet. The range will paste onto the sheet as a picture. Cut it, and it's in the clipboard as a picture that can be pasted anywhere.

Sub CopyRangeToClipboardAsPicture()
  Application.ScreenUpdating = False
  Range("SomeRange").Copy
  ActiveSheet.Shapes("LittleShape").Select
  ActiveSheet.Paste
  Selection.Cut
End Sub
1 Answers

You can use a different method which I have demonstraded in Pop up the Excel Statusbar?. In this post, I am copying a shape to clipboard and then using it.

To tweak it to your need use Range.CopyPicture method (Excel) to copy the range to clipboard. To test it insert an ActiveX image control in a sheet of your choice and then run the code.

Option Explicit

Sub Sample()
    Dim ws As Worksheet
    Dim rng As Range
    
    '~~> Change this to the relevant sheet
    Set ws = Sheet1
    '~~> Change this to relevant shape
    Set rng = ws.Range("A1:C10")
    
    rng.CopyPicture
    Set Image1.Picture = PastePicture(xlPicture)
End Sub

And paste this in a module

Option Explicit

'***************************************************************************
'*
'* MODULE NAME:     Paste Picture
'* AUTHOR & DATE:   STEPHEN BULLEN, Office Automation Ltd
'*                  15 November 1998
'*
'* CONTACT:         Stephen@oaltd.co.uk
'* WEB SITE:        http://www.oaltd.co.uk
'*
'* DESCRIPTION:     Creates a standard Picture object from whatever is on the clipboard.
'*                  This object can then be assigned to (for example) and Image control
'*                  on a userform.  The PastePicture function takes an optional argument of
'*                  the picture type - xlBitmap or xlPicture.
'*
'*                  The code requires a reference to the "OLE Automation" type library
'*
'*                  The code in this module has been derived from a number of sources
'*                  discovered on MSDN.
'*
'*                  To use it, just copy this module into your project, then you can use:
'*                      Set Image1.Picture = PastePicture(xlPicture)
'*                  to paste a picture of whatever is on the clipboard into a standard image control.
'*
'* PROCEDURES:
'*   PastePicture   The entry point for the routine
'*   CreatePicture  Private function to convert a bitmap or metafile handle to an OLE reference
'*   fnOLEError     Get the error text for an OLE error code
'***************************************************************************

Option Compare Text

''' User-Defined Types for API Calls

'Declare a UDT to store a GUID for the IPicture OLE Interface
Private Type GUID
    Data1 As Long
    Data2 As Integer
    Data3 As Integer
    Data4(0 To 7) As Byte
End Type

'Declare a UDT to store the bitmap information
Private Type uPicDesc
    Size As Long
    Type As Long
    hPic As Long
    hPal As Long
End Type

'''Windows API Function Declarations

'Does the clipboard contain a bitmap/metafile?
Private Declare Function IsClipboardFormatAvailable Lib "user32" (ByVal wFormat As Integer) As Long

'Open the clipboard to read
Private Declare Function OpenClipboard Lib "user32" (ByVal hwnd As Long) As Long

'Get a pointer to the bitmap/metafile
Private Declare Function GetClipboardData Lib "user32" (ByVal wFormat As Integer) As Long

'Close the clipboard
Private Declare Function CloseClipboard Lib "user32" () As Long

'Convert the handle into an OLE IPicture interface.
Private Declare Function OleCreatePictureIndirect Lib "olepro32.dll" (PicDesc As uPicDesc, RefIID As GUID, ByVal fPictureOwnsHandle As Long, IPic As IPicture) As Long

'Create our own copy of the metafile, so it doesn't get wiped out by subsequent clipboard updates.
Declare Function CopyEnhMetaFile Lib "gdi32" Alias "CopyEnhMetaFileA" (ByVal hemfSrc As Long, ByVal lpszFile As String) As Long

'Create our own copy of the bitmap, so it doesn't get wiped out by subsequent clipboard updates.
Declare Function CopyImage Lib "user32" (ByVal handle As Long, ByVal un1 As Long, ByVal n1 As Long, ByVal n2 As Long, ByVal un2 As Long) As Long

'The API format types we're interested in
Const CF_BITMAP = 2
Const CF_PALETTE = 9
Const CF_ENHMETAFILE = 14
Const IMAGE_BITMAP = 0
Const LR_COPYRETURNORG = &H4

''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''
''' Subroutine: PastePicture
'''
''' Purpose:    Get a Picture object showing whatever's on the clipboard.
'''
''' Arguments:  lXlPicType - The type of picture to create.  Can be one of:
'''                          xlPicture to create a metafile (default)
'''                          xlBitmap to create a bitmap
'''
''' Date        Developer           Action
''' --------------------------------------------------------------------------
''' 30 Oct 98   Stephen Bullen      Created
''' 15 Nov 98   Stephen Bullen      Updated to create our own copies of the clipboard images
'''

Function PastePicture(Optional lXlPicType As Long = xlPicture) As IPicture

    'Some pointers
    Dim h As Long, hPicAvail As Long, hPtr As Long, hPal As Long, lPicType As Long, hCopy As Long

    'Convert the type of picture requested from the xl constant to the API constant
    lPicType = IIf(lXlPicType = xlBitmap, CF_BITMAP, CF_ENHMETAFILE)

    'Check if the clipboard contains the required format
    hPicAvail = IsClipboardFormatAvailable(lPicType)

    If hPicAvail <> 0 Then
        'Get access to the clipboard
        h = OpenClipboard(0&)

        If h > 0 Then
            'Get a handle to the image data
            hPtr = GetClipboardData(lPicType)

            'Create our own copy of the image on the clipboard, in the appropriate format.
            If lPicType = CF_BITMAP Then
                hCopy = CopyImage(hPtr, IMAGE_BITMAP, 0, 0, LR_COPYRETURNORG)
            Else
                hCopy = CopyEnhMetaFile(hPtr, vbNullString)
            End If

            'Release the clipboard to other programs
            h = CloseClipboard

            'If we got a handle to the image, convert it into a Picture object and return it
            If hPtr <> 0 Then Set PastePicture = CreatePicture(hCopy, 0, lPicType)
        End If
    End If

End Function


''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''
''' Subroutine: CreatePicture
'''
''' Purpose:    Converts a image (and palette) handle into a Picture object.
'''
'''             Requires a reference to the "OLE Automation" type library
'''
''' Arguments:  None
'''
''' Date        Developer           Action
''' --------------------------------------------------------------------------
''' 30 Oct 98  Stephen Bullen      Created
'''

Private Function CreatePicture(ByVal hPic As Long, ByVal hPal As Long, ByVal lPicType) As IPicture

    ' IPicture requires a reference to "OLE Automation"
    Dim r As Long, uPicInfo As uPicDesc, IID_IDispatch As GUID, IPic As IPicture

    'OLE Picture types
    Const PICTYPE_BITMAP = 1
    Const PICTYPE_ENHMETAFILE = 4

    ' Create the Interface GUID (for the IPicture interface)
    With IID_IDispatch
        .Data1 = &H7BF80980
        .Data2 = &HBF32
        .Data3 = &H101A
        .Data4(0) = &H8B
        .Data4(1) = &HBB
        .Data4(2) = &H0
        .Data4(3) = &HAA
        .Data4(4) = &H0
        .Data4(5) = &H30
        .Data4(6) = &HC
        .Data4(7) = &HAB
    End With

    ' Fill uPicInfo with necessary parts.
    With uPicInfo
        .Size = Len(uPicInfo)                                                   ' Length of structure.
        .Type = IIf(lPicType = CF_BITMAP, PICTYPE_BITMAP, PICTYPE_ENHMETAFILE)  ' Type of Picture
        .hPic = hPic                                                            ' Handle to image.
        .hPal = IIf(lPicType = CF_BITMAP, hPal, 0)                              ' Handle to palette (if bitmap).
    End With

    ' Create the Picture object.
    r = OleCreatePictureIndirect(uPicInfo, IID_IDispatch, True, IPic)

    ' If an error occured, show the description
    If r <> 0 Then Debug.Print "Create Picture: " & fnOLEError(r)

    ' Return the new Picture object.
    Set CreatePicture = IPic

End Function

''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''
''' Subroutine: fnOLEError
'''
''' Purpose:    Gets the message text for standard OLE errors
'''
''' Arguments:  None
'''
''' Date        Developer           Action
''' --------------------------------------------------------------------------
''' 30 Oct 98   Stephen Bullen      Created
'''

Private Function fnOLEError(lErrNum As Long) As String

    'OLECreatePictureIndirect return values
    Const E_ABORT = &H80004004
    Const E_ACCESSDENIED = &H80070005
    Const E_FAIL = &H80004005
    Const E_HANDLE = &H80070006
    Const E_INVALIDARG = &H80070057
    Const E_NOINTERFACE = &H80004002
    Const E_NOTIMPL = &H80004001
    Const E_OUTOFMEMORY = &H8007000E
    Const E_POINTER = &H80004003
    Const E_UNEXPECTED = &H8000FFFF
    Const S_OK = &H0

    Select Case lErrNum
        Case E_ABORT
            fnOLEError = " Aborted"
        Case E_ACCESSDENIED
            fnOLEError = " Access Denied"
        Case E_FAIL
            fnOLEError = " General Failure"
        Case E_HANDLE
            fnOLEError = " Bad/Missing Handle"
        Case E_INVALIDARG
            fnOLEError = " Invalid Argument"
        Case E_NOINTERFACE
            fnOLEError = " No Interface"
        Case E_NOTIMPL
            fnOLEError = " Not Implemented"
        Case E_OUTOFMEMORY
            fnOLEError = " Out of Memory"
        Case E_POINTER
            fnOLEError = " Invalid Pointer"
        Case E_UNEXPECTED
            fnOLEError = " Unknown Error"
        Case S_OK
            fnOLEError = " Success!"
    End Select
End Function

The best part is that it will capture an image as well if it is in the range. See this screenshot.

enter image description here

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