how can i simulate CTRL+C in C#

Question

I have the following code which works fine in notepad but not in WORD!!

 [DllImport("user32.dll")]
 public static extern bool ShowWindow(IntPtr hWnd, int nCmdShow);

 [DllImport("user32.dll")]
 public static extern IntPtr GetForegroundWindow();

 [DllImport("user32.dll", SetLastError = true)]
 public static extern uint GetWindowThreadProcessId(IntPtr hWnd, out uint lpdwProcessId);

 [DllImport("kernel32.dll")]
 public static extern uint GetCurrentThreadId();

 [DllImport("user32.dll")]
 public static extern bool AttachThreadInput(uint idAttach, uint idAttachTo, bool fAttach);

 [DllImport("user32.dll")]
 public static extern IntPtr GetFocus();

 [DllImport("user32.dll")]
 public static extern int SendMessage(IntPtr hWnd, uint Msg, int wParam, StringBuilder lParam);

 // second overload of SendMessage
 [DllImport("user32.dll")]
 public static extern int SendMessage(IntPtr hWnd, uint Msg, out int wParam, out int lParam);

 [DllImport("user32.dll")]
 public static extern int GetWindowText(IntPtr hWnd, StringBuilder text, int count);

 public const uint WM_GETTEXT = 0x0D;
 public const uint WM_GETTEXTLENGTH = 0x0E;
 public const uint EM_GETSEL = 0xB0;

        IntPtr hWnd = WinUser.GetForegroundWindow();
        uint processId;
        uint activeThreadId = WinUser.GetWindowThreadProcessId(hWnd, out processId);
        uint currentThreadId = WinUser.GetCurrentThreadId();

        WinUser.AttachThreadInput(activeThreadId, currentThreadId, true);
        IntPtr focusedHandle = WinUser.GetFocus();
        WinUser.AttachThreadInput(activeThreadId, currentThreadId, false);

        int len = WinUser.SendMessage(focusedHandle, WinUser.WM_GETTEXTLENGTH, 0, null);
        StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder(len);
        int numChars = WinUser.SendMessage(focusedHandle, WinUser.WM_GETTEXT, len + 1, sb);

        int start, next;
        string selectedText = "";
        WinUser.SendMessage(focusedHandle, WinUser.EM_GETSEL, out start, out next);
        try
        {
            selectedText = sb.ToString().Substring(start, next - start);
        }

unfortunately the above returns "{Microsoft Word Document}" when selecting a text in WORD or any "richtextbox". How does CTRL+C do it?

NOTE: This works fine in notepad or on any simple text editor.

Answer 1

I think you should look into this tutorial on C# Clipboard Copy and Pasting. Using Copy paste in C# is not actualy as hard as you might think.

Copy

Clipboard.SetText(txtClipboard.Text);

Paste

txtClipboard.Text = Clipboard.GetText();

Check the Above link for more information and examples. You should also look at the MSDN page for Clipboard.

Answer 2

Is this you are looking for: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/235972/copy-and-modify-selected-text-in-different-application

Answer 3

I'm pretty sure Word is not going to respond to EM_ messages. These messages are specific to Windows edit controls; it just to happens that Notepad uses a plain edit control for its text.

You might be able to achieve what you want using the Word COM automation interfaces. There's no 100% guaranteed means to retrieve text from another application.

Edit: I'm no expert on this, but you might have more success with the accessibility APIs. It's possible for an app (such as Notepad or Word) to expose a set of objects representing its UI that you can query from your app.