How To Copy a Section of a Bitmap to the Clipboard (242018)

MORE INFORMATION

Step by Step Example

1. Start a new Visual Basic Standard Exe project. Form1 is created by default.
2. On the Project menu, select Add Module to add a new module to the existing project.
3. Add two Picture Boxes to the form, name one Pic_Edit (the target), and name the other Pic_Dest (the destination.)
4. Set the Picture property of Pic_Edit to a bitmap from which you want to select a region.
5. Set the AutoRedraw property of Pic_Dest to True.
6. Add the following code to Module1:

   Public Const INVERSE = 6
   Public Const DOT = 2
   Public Const SOLID = 0
   
   Public OrigX As Long
   Public OrigY As Long
   Public DestX As Long
   Public DestY As Long
   
   Public Sub Draw_Selection_Rectangle()
    
       ' Set drawing mode to INVERSE since this routine also used to erase
       ' the selection rectangle by simply drawing over the currently 
       ' displayed rectangle
       
       With Editor.Pic_Edit
           .DrawMode = INVERSE
           .DrawStyle = DOT
           Editor.Pic_Edit.Line (OrigX, OrigY)-(DestX, DestY), , B
           .DrawStyle = SOLID
       End With
   
   End Sub
   
   Public Sub Copy_Rectangle()
       With Editor.Pic_Dest
           .Cls
           .Visible = True
           .Height = DestY - OrigY
           .Width = DestX - OrigX
           .PaintPicture Editor.Pic_Edit, 0, 0, (DestX - OrigX), _
               (DestY - OrigY), OrigX, OrigY, (DestX - OrigX), _
               (DestY - OrigY), vbSrcCopy
       End With
       
       ' Make sure the clipboard is clear, then copy the image:
       Clipboard.Clear
       Clipboard.SetData Editor.Pic_Dest.Image
   End Sub
   
   					

7. Add the following code to Form1:

   Private Sub Pic_Edit_MouseDown(Button As Integer, Shift As Integer, X As Single, Y As Single)
       If Button = 1 Then Pic_Edit.Refresh
       Pic_Dest.Visible = False
       OrigX = X
       OrigY = Y
       DestX = OrigX
       DestY = OrigY
       Call Module1.Draw_Selection_Rectangle
   End Sub
   
   Private Sub Pic_Edit_MouseMove(Button As Integer, Shift As Integer, X As Single, Y As Single)
          
       If Button = 1 Then
           DestX = X
           DestY = Y
           Pic_Edit.Refresh
           Call Module1.Draw_Selection_Rectangle
       End If
   End Sub
   
   Private Sub Pic_Edit_MouseUp(Button As Integer, Shift As Integer, X As Single, Y As Single)
       ' Check to see if mouse moved or goes the "wrong" way:
       If DestX <= OrigX Or DestY <= OrigY Then
           Pic_Edit.Refresh
           Exit Sub
       End If
       
       If Button = 1 Then Call Copy_Rectangle
   End Sub
   
   					

8. Start the application and select an area of the bitmap with the mouse. When you release the mouse button, Pic_Dest appears with the selected region.NOTE: If you open up MS Paint, MS Word, or any other application that can take a pasted bitmap image, you are able to paste the selected portion of the image to that application. You can also view the contents of the clipboard by using the Clipboard Viewer.