Clipboard Actions

These actions work with the Windows clipboard on the AI Employee’s computer. They are a reliable way to move text between applications, and to capture on-screen values so later actions in the job can use them.

Only one program can use the clipboard at a time. If another program is using it, for example a remote access tool copying it to another computer, the AI Employee waits up to 10 seconds for it. If the clipboard is still busy after that, the action reports failure, the job log says the clipboard was in use, and the job does whatever you chose for that action’s failure.

Clipboard - Get Value

Reads the text currently on the clipboard and saves it so later actions can reference it as a token. The AI Employee tries up to three times before failing, and the action fails if the clipboard contains no text - so run a copy action (or Clipboard - Set Value) first.

Clipboard - Set Value

Places the specified text on the clipboard, ready to be pasted by a later action. Key setting: Set Clipboard Text, which supports [[ Field ]] tokens - a common pattern is to set the clipboard to a process field value and then paste it with Clipboard - Paste. If the text turns out to be empty or only spaces, for example a field that was left blank, the action empties the clipboard, so a later paste cannot paste old text.

Clipboard - Clear

Empties the clipboard. Use it before a copy step when you want to be certain a later Clipboard - Get Value cannot pick up stale text from an earlier operation, or at the end of a job to avoid leaving sensitive values on the clipboard.

Clipboard - Copy

Sends Ctrl+C to copy whatever is currently selected in the focused application, then reads the copied text and saves it for later actions. The copy is retried several times, and the action fails if nothing ends up on the clipboard - make sure something is selected first (for example, with a Typing - Press Key Ctrl+A, or a triple click).

Clipboard - Paste

Sends Ctrl+V to paste the current clipboard content into the focused field, and saves the pasted text so later actions can reference it. Pasting is often more dependable than typing for long text or text with special characters - pair it with Clipboard - Set Value.