Copy and Paste to Excel from another program

Question

I use vb script to paste data to Excel that has been copied to the clipboard via SAS code. However, my code has now failed for some users. SAS accomplishes the writing to the clipboard task, and then creates and issues a system command to run the VB script.
Here is an example of the current VB script:
Dim objExcel
Dim Newbook
Dim NewSheet
Dim inSheetCount
Set objExcel = CreateObject("Excel.Application")
Set Newbook = objExcel.Workbooks.Add()
objExcel.Visible = True
inSheetCount = Newbook.Application.Worksheets.Count
set NewSheet = Newbook.Sheets.Add( ,objExcel.WorkSheets(inSheetCount))
objExcel.DisplayAlerts = False
i = inSheetCount
Do Until i = 0
 Newbook.Worksheets(i).Delete
 i = i - 1
 Loop
Newbook.Sheets(1).Name="N1"
Newbook.Sheets("N1").Select
Newbook.Sheets("N1").Range("A2").Activate
NewBook.Sheets("N1").Range("A2").PasteSpecial
NewSheet.SaveAs("c:\temp\test\tclass1.xlsx")
objExcel.Workbooks.Close
objExcel.DisplayAlerts = True
objExcel.Quit
The problem is that for some users, Excel can't access the clipboard unless it is already open before the copy operation occurs.
How can I convert the above script into multiple scripts that allow me to use SAS to: (1) open Excel; (2) not part of script: accomplish the copy operation via SAS; (3) perform the paste and save operation in Excel and then close Excel?
TIA,
Art 

Answer 1

Your link wasn't there when I originally read your post, so I figured out a way to solve my problem on my own. However, thank you for your help and I will definitely look at the link you provided.
Regardless of the fact that the following is probably quite sloppy code, I was able to do what I wanted by incorporating running Notepad as a shell within my vbscript. The code simply does everything that my original example does but, just prior to pasting
from the clipboard, opens the txt file in notepad and copies it to the clipboard:
Dim objExcel
Dim Newbook
Dim NewSheet
Dim inSheetCount
Set objExcel = CreateObject("Excel.Application")
Set Newbook = objExcel.Workbooks.Add()
objExcel.Visible = True
inSheetCount = Newbook.Application.Worksheets.Count
set NewSheet = Newbook.Sheets.Add( ,objExcel.WorkSheets(inSheetCount))
objExcel.DisplayAlerts = False
i = inSheetCount
Do Until i = 0
 Newbook.Worksheets(i).Delete
 i = i - 1
 Loop
Newbook.Sheets(1).Name="test"
Newbook.Sheets("test").Select
Newbook.Sheets("test").Range("A1").Activate
Dim objShell
Set objShell = CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
objShell.Run "notepad.exe c:\temp\test\clip.txt"
Do Until Success = True
Success = objShell.AppActivate("Notepad")
Wscript.Sleep 1000
Loop
objShell.SendKeys "%E"
Do Until Success = True
Success = objShell.AppActivate("Notepad")
Wscript.Sleep 1000
Loop
objShell.SendKeys "A"
Do Until Success = True
Success = objShell.AppActivate("Notepad")
Wscript.Sleep 1000
Loop
objShell.SendKeys "%E"
Do Until Success = True
Success = objShell.AppActivate("Notepad")
Wscript.Sleep 1000
Loop
objShell.SendKeys "C"
Do Until Success = True
Success = objShell.AppActivate("Notepad")
Wscript.Sleep 1000
Loop
objShell.SendKeys "%F"
Do Until Success = True
Success = objShell.AppActivate("Notepad")
Wscript.Sleep 1000
Loop
objShell.SendKeys "X"
Do Until Success = True
Success = objShell.AppActivate("Notepad")
Wscript.Sleep 1000
Loop
objShell.SendKeys "{TAB}"
WScript.Sleep 500
objShell.SendKeys "{ENTER}"
Wscript.Sleep 1000
Newbook.Sheets("test").Paste
NewSheet.SaveAs("c:\temp\test\server_formatted.xlsx")
objExcel.Workbooks.Close
objExcel.DisplayAlerts = True
objExcel.Quit
WScript.Quit
Arthur Tabachneck