Tool to copy text from dialog windows?

Question

In Windows sometimes I get an error dialog with long text. Is there a tool which can copy the displayed text?

Answer 1

Try just hitting Ctrl+C while the dialog has focus. If it is a normal modal Windows message box, it will put the text in the dialog in the clipboard for you.

The copied text should look something like this:

---------------------------
Window Title
---------------------------
The dialog box main text
---------------------------
OK   
---------------------------

Answer 2

If you have OneNote, you can take a screen clip, then right-click the pasted image (in OneNote) and select "Copy Text from Picture".

I usually have success with it. Sometimes I need to do a little editing though.

Answer 3

You could also take a screenshot...press 'Print Screen' then paste the image into Paint...

Answer 4

A bit of an old question, but here is a different solution:

For windows that don't natively support Ctrl+C, there are several utilities which will poke around all current processes and let you pull the text from standard window objects (listboxes, comboboxes, etc.)

I used one years ago that worked well, but can't remember the name of it. Here's another I just found by doing a quick search:

http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/sysexp.html

Answer 5

For dialogs and controls that don’t have a copy ability built-in, I prefer to use WinSpy++ to capture the raw text. (You simply use the picker-tool to select the window/control in question and then copy the text from the caption field.)