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title: Read Clipboard
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product: RPA Builder
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# Read Clipboard

> For the full documentation index, see: https://docs.mulesoft.com/llms.txt

This _Action Step_ simply copies the current clipboard content into a variable (see Section
[Using Variables](https://docs.mulesoft.com/rpa-builder/6.6/advanced-concepts-using-variables)) for further usage within the _Workflow_.

## Properties

**Clear Clipboard after reading** If activated, the clipboard will be cleared after it was read and
saved into a variable

**Copy to clipboard before reading** (Default: Disabled) If this property is enabled, the text
currently selected will be copied to the clipboard before reading the contents of the buffer. The
_CTRL+C_ command is used to copy the text.

Please note that some text must be selected when this is executed.

The content of the buffer is deleted before copying the selected text. If no text is selected, then
the buffer will be empty, i.e. it will not contain any data that might otherwise have been stored
there from a previous action.

The _CTRL+C_ command takes a variable amount of time to perform the copy, depending on system load,
so this _Action Step_ includes a _Timeout_. The buffer is checked every 250 ms to see if it contains
any data.

If it does, then the contents of the buffer are returned.

If the buffer is empty, then the system will check for content after a further 250 ms. This process
is repeated until the _Timeout_ has expired.

Therefore, do not enter a value of 0 for the _Timeout_. This would result in the buffer being empty.

## Inbound Variables

**Clear Clipboard after reading** Contains the information if the clipboard should be cleared after
reading or not.

## Outbound Variables

**ClipboardContent** The content of the clipboard.

Note that this _Action Step_ will throw an error if the clipboard contains anything other than text
(such as images, files, etc.).