Powertoys: Copy message box text

[Offbeatmammal]

📝 WIn10 has improved the ability to copy "un-selectable" text, but...

Ctrl+C is a boon for avoiding re-keying, and I use it a thousand times a day ... but as a developer working largely with VBA Macros in PowerPoint there is one frustration ... although the magic works in some Office situations it seems those error popups don't let me do it (it might be a side-effect of working through Remote Desktop, as my host machine is a Mac!)

I use a couple of other Powertoys (PT Run is fantastic) and think this would be a good fit for some creative enhancement...

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[crutkas]

@offbeatmammal, just want to verify, so if a dialog pops up, you want the body to be copied to your clipboard

Example here "Windows cannot ...." would be copied, right?

[Offbeatmammal]

yes, that's what I'm after ... save me having to re-type the error message when I want to Bing It

[Jay-o-Way]

I think there are two possible ways to approach this. The first is the most direct way: trying to actually read the text inside the control/window. But for some windows, that is still impossible.
The second is via OCR.

[wilka]

Pressing Ctlr+C already does copy the text of a message box (assuming it's using the native Windows message box UI). I guess PowerPoint macros are doing some custom UI?

A general OCR from clipboard images would be handy though. My current workflow for this is:

• Snip the area of the screen containing the text
• Past the image into OneNote (often by quickly making a new note with Windows+N shortcut)
• Right-click on the image in OneNote and choose "Copy text from the picture"

[Offbeatmammal]

interesting workaround using the OneNote OCR ... will have to give it a try... but would love to see something very lightweight (or just have Ctrl+C work in VBA... I'll have to submit a UserVoice as well!)

[crutkas]

There has to be a hook in due to accessibility to grab the text.