QUESTION :
How can I access the clipboard contents when it is in an unusual format that most programs won’t accept (i.e. not easily pasteable)?
I have copied something from a program, supposedly in PDF format, using an undocumented hidden option. I would like to access this data if possible. It cannot be directly pasted into any of the programs I tried, but the data is present in the clipboard, as shown by ClipBook Viewer:
ANSWER :
There are different tools available, but you can try this free tool called clipview:
There is also the following free tool called InsideClipboard:
http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/inside_clipboard.html
A clipboard content has a display format. The developer who designed the software is supposed to provide that display format. Without it, you cannot view the clipboard content from the clipboard viewer.
Windows clipboard viewer supports 4 display format. For your case, the app doesn’t use any of the 4 display format, and the developer didn’t provide a display format. As you mentioned, it is undocumented, maybe it never worked.
If you are technical and want to explore the data, the clipboard data is OLE object, you may lookup the COM registry to find out more clue. It is one of the Class IDs in your Windows Registry. Usually starts with the application name, again, it all depends on the developer to write in good faith.
The four display formats are: CF_DSPBITMAP, CF_DSPMETAFILEPICT, CF_DSPTEXT, and CF_DSPENHMETAFILE. These display formats are rendered in the same way as the standard formats, which are: CF_BITMAP, CF_TEXT, CF_METAFILEPICT, and CF_ENHMETAFILE.
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/dataxchg/clipboard