# Microsoft Office Application Help - Excel Help forum > Excel Programming / VBA / Macros >  > [SOLVED] How do I reference "DataObject"?

## Carl

I'm trying to retrieve text from the windows clipboard in my Excel
2003 application.  I've checked Chip Pearson's website and found the
code that does exactly what I need to do.  The following line fails
with the error "User-defined type not defined".

Dim ClipboardISBN As dataobject

I read in another thread, "it's a member of msforms library, not from
native vba.  you'll need a reference to Microsoft Forms 2.0 Object
Library. The reference is automatically added  to a workbook when you
insert a Userform from VBeditor's Insert menu."

I added a userform and tried to compile but no go for me.  I must need
to install something else because I could not even see a reference to
Microsoft Forms Object Library in the references window in the VBA
Editor.

How do I reference "dataobject"?  What am I doing wrong????

Thank you,

Carl

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## K Dales

It would be very odd for VBA to add a userform without the Forms library, so
first try a simple check: after adding the userform, go to the object browser
and in the dropdown box at the very top, where it (normally) says "<All
Libraries>", see if MSForms is listed.  If it is, you are getting the error
for another reason.  I work with OfficeXP, but doubt that the following info
has changed for 2003:

If MSForms is not listed, and you can't find it in the References list, go
to add a reference and then hit the "Browse..." button to look for the file
yourself.  MSForms is in a file called "FM20.dll" (at least for version 2.0;
other versions would be numbered accordingly) which is probably in your
Windows\System32 folder.  You should be able to add it that way (even without
adding a UserForm).  If you can't find the file, it may have somehow gotten
erased and you may need to reinstall Excel.

If, however, you find that you have the MSForms library in your project and
it still throws an error on your Dim statement, you may need to explicitly
reference the dataobject as being from the Forms library

Dim ClipboardISBN as MSForms.dataobject

Hope you get it working
K Dales

"Carl" wrote:

> I'm trying to retrieve text from the windows clipboard in my Excel
> 2003 application.  I've checked Chip Pearson's website and found the
> code that does exactly what I need to do.  The following line fails
> with the error "User-defined type not defined".
>
> Dim ClipboardISBN As dataobject
>
> I read in another thread, "it's a member of msforms library, not from
> native vba.  you'll need a reference to Microsoft Forms 2.0 Object
> Library. The reference is automatically added  to a workbook when you
> insert a Userform from VBeditor's Insert menu."
>
> I added a userform and tried to compile but no go for me.  I must need
> to install something else because I could not even see a reference to
> Microsoft Forms Object Library in the references window in the VBA
> Editor.
>
> How do I reference "dataobject"?  What am I doing wrong????
>
> Thank you,
>
> Carl
>

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