Author Topic: CHS causing "the picture is too large and will be truncated" error in excel? (Read 23,285 times)

m9833 · « **on:** April 14, 2020, 09:03 AM »

Since a few days, whenever I try to copy more than a few cells in excel, I keep on receiving the error "the picture is too large and will be truncated". After this, excel hangs. It mostly recovers but every now then I am left with no option but to force close it. The problem disappears, once I exit CHS.

Is there an option within CHS that I need to change in order not to get this error?

Thanks.

mouser · « **Reply #1 on:** April 14, 2020, 08:27 PM »

What a strange error..
Are you using the latest alpha of CHS that supports multiple formats?
Can you paste a screenshot of the error?
Assuming you are using the alpha of CHS, can you paste a screenshot of your CHS blob data view of the paste?

m9833 · « **Reply #2 on:** April 14, 2020, 09:26 PM »

Thank you for your reply, dear Mouser.

Quote from: mouser on April 14, 2020, 08:27 PM

Are you using the latest alpha of CHS that supports multiple formats?

Yes. I am using the latest (approx. a couple of weeks old) alpha version.

Quote from: mouser on April 14, 2020, 08:27 PM

Can you paste a screenshot of the error?

Gladly.

Quote from: mouser on April 14, 2020, 08:27 PM

Assuming you are using the alpha of CHS, can you paste a screenshot of your CHS blob data view of the paste?

How does one do that?

mouser · « **Reply #3 on:** April 14, 2020, 09:35 PM »

Go to the main chs window, select the clip you are going to paste, and then click the Blob Info tab.

mouser · « **Reply #4 on:** April 14, 2020, 09:38 PM »

I misunderstood your post -- I thought you were saying the error occurred when you were pasting into Excel, now I see it's a weird clipboard error when trying to copy from inside excel, is that right?

mouser · « **Reply #5 on:** April 14, 2020, 10:31 PM »

Can you reproduce the problem -- and tell me how to reproduce it? Maybe send me an excel file that triggers the error? (mouser@donationcoder.com)

m9833 · « **Reply #6 on:** April 17, 2020, 06:40 PM »

Hi Mouser,

That's right. The error occurs, when I try to copy within excel. It is not related to any particular file. Even if I try copying multiple cells within a new blank excel file, I get the same error. That, unless I exit CHS.

Searching on the internet, I found that this problem occurs in a number of cases, some of which involved one clipboard manager or the other. That is what made me try turning CHS off in the first place. I will check again, if using the non-alpha stable version also results in a similar error. That might help in the troubleshooting.

Would you still like to have the BLOB data?

Thanks and a great weekend.

mouser · « **Reply #7 on:** April 17, 2020, 10:47 PM »

I think what I need to do is tweak the CHS rule system to allow it to better ignore formats early and not try to access them.. and maybe that, combined with ignore CF_METAPICT format for excel, will solve the problem.

Still what I'd really like to do is be able to reproduce the problem locally so I could test it better.

m9833 · « **Reply #8 on:** April 21, 2020, 02:51 AM »

Hi Mouser,

I have sent you the BLOB data file using PM.

Today, I reinstalled the stable version (2.46.01) and the excel error disappeared. At least until now, the error seems to be related to the Alpha version (2.47.01) only.

Best,

mouser · « **Reply #9 on:** April 23, 2020, 09:28 AM »

I have uploaded a new alpha version (same url).

This new version will surely not solve the problem per se, but it now will skip trying to even look at formats that are excluded in the advanced rule section.

Once installed, add a rule as follows:

This should prevent CHS from trying to grab the CF_METAFILEPICT format, that causes excel to freak out. It shouldnt have any other bad side effect since CHS can still see the alternate image file format.

mouser · « **Reply #10 on:** April 23, 2020, 09:30 AM »

Ok I re-read your original post and saw you were saying it happens when you have more than a few cells selected, so I tried a test capturing more cells, and I can trigger the error on my end.
So the fix above should work... And now I need to decide how best to handle it going forward so that people don't have to add that rule manually..

m9833 · « **Reply #11 on:** April 23, 2020, 09:36 AM »

Hi Mouser,

Thanks for your great help.

The best way to reproduce the error that I found till now is to select the entire worksheet by clicking on the top left corner and then copying using Ctrl+C.

I have just now downloaded and installed the latest Alpha version (v 2.54.0) and did not get the error. Perhaps a good thing? :-)

Thanks,

m.

P.S.: I now have put it on my to do list for 2021-22: Learn scripting so as to understand the programming references here and maybe also contribute to the development more actively.

mouser · « **Reply #12 on:** April 23, 2020, 09:39 AM »

Thank you for your patience with me taking a while to fix this.

The error will still show up in the new version until you add the rule; once you do it should solve it I think.

In any future version I will make the rule automatic so you don't have to add it.

m9833 · « **Reply #13 on:** April 23, 2020, 09:44 AM »

Hi Mouser,

THANK YOU for your dedication to the project and your sense of responsibility for the users. I (and I am sure that most other members) appreciate it a lot.

I am including the rule right now. But, did not get the error, despite not having added the rule since I updated to the latest alpha a few minutes back.

m9833 · « **Reply #14 on:** April 23, 2020, 10:06 AM »

I have now also included the rule. Reporting no error till now.

m9833 · « **Reply #15 on:** May 04, 2020, 10:06 PM »

Now this is interesting:

Until now I was unzipping the alpha version in the CHS program files folder, which is a result of installing CHS using the setup program. Now I removed the installed version and started using CHS just as portable program. Now, even after including the excel rule, I have started getting the error in excel again.

mouser · « **Reply #16 on:** May 05, 2020, 08:08 AM »

Hmm that is very odd..

mouser · « **Reply #17 on:** May 05, 2020, 08:11 AM »

Can you check the excel rule in the options, AND make sure you are running the latest CHS (2.54).

mouser · « **Reply #18 on:** May 05, 2020, 09:02 AM »

I've uploaded a new alpha (v2.55); this one should also solve the excel problem but even without a rule added, based on the fact that it knows to ignore the CF_METAFILEPICT format if it finds an earlier better format (CF_ENHMETAFILE).

The solution is still basically the same, to avoid trying to grab CF_METAFILEPICT from excel, it just avoids it automatically now rather than needing a custom rule. So it should solve the problem out of the box for everyone.

Please do let me know if you ever see that error in this new version!

m9833 · « **Reply #19 on:** May 05, 2020, 09:30 AM »

Thanks for the quick uptake, dear Mouser.

I just downloaded and use the 2.55 version and the error persists. I wonder, what it was with my earlier configuration (sadly deleted now) with the alpha version copied straight over the installed version that did not show the problem after the version update a couple of weeks earlier.

Following is the screenshot of the 2.55 rules interface:

mouser · « **Reply #20 on:** May 05, 2020, 10:10 AM »

Can you send me an excel file and instructions for how to repeat the problem?

m9833 · « **Reply #21 on:** May 05, 2020, 03:41 PM »

Hi Mouser,

The error is not limited to any specific Excel File. The fastest way to reproduce the error is to select the entire worksheet in any excel file (including blank ones) by clicking on the top left corner and then copying using Ctrl+C, while CHS is running. I am using Excel 2016. If you can't reproduce the error this way, then the problem might somehow lie with my PC configuration.

mouser · « **Reply #22 on:** May 07, 2020, 08:11 AM »

Hmm..
I'm having trouble reproducing this.. Can anyone else reproduce using the latest alpha version?

m9833 · « **Reply #23 on:** May 07, 2020, 09:32 AM »

Hi Mouser,

Thanks to your earlier explanations, I played around with the capture settings a bit, and the problem seems to be gone for now.

After disabling the "Capture other formats" checkbox under "Main Capture Options" in CHS, I am not getting the error anymore. I still don't know why the error disappeared earlier, but am happy for now. :-)

mouser · « **Reply #24 on:** May 07, 2020, 10:43 AM »

Unfortunately, that's not a good solution, as that will tell CHS not to even bother trying to capture the extended clipboard formats that hold the most useful formats for excel.