Selecting and copying Outlook email body with a VBA macro

Question

I'm a beginner to VBA macros in Excel, and this is the first attempt in Outlook, but here's what I am trying to do:

In Outlook 2010, assign a macro to a button that, when pushed,

1. Gets the entire body of the active email
2. Copies the body including all formatting and html to the clipboard
3. Opens a new word document
4. Pastes the content of the clipboard to this word doc
5. Clears the clipboard

So far, all I have are steps 1 and 3 (and I wonder if I'm going about this the wrong way in step 1) below:

Sub pasteToWord()

    Dim activeMailMessage As Outlook.MailItem 'variable for email that will be copied.
    Dim activeBody
    Dim clearIt As String 'Intended to eventually clear clipboard.

'Code to get to the body of the active email.
    If TypeName(ActiveExplorer.Selection.Item(1)) = "MailItem" Then _
    Set activeMailMessage = ActiveExplorer.Selection.Item(1)
    activeBody = activeMailMessage.Body
    'MsgBox activeBody
    '^This displayed what I want in plaintext form,
    'so I think im on the right track

'Code to copy selection to clipboard

'Code to open new Word doc
    Set WordApp = CreateObject("Word.Application")
    WordApp.Documents.Add
    WordApp.Visible = True

'Code to paste contents of clipboard to active word document

'Code to clear clipboard

End Sub

Any guidance to fill in the blanks above would be much appreciated.

Edit:

Here is what has come the closest so far, thanks to David Zemens. I think I am missing some reference though, because my compiler doesn't understand "DataObject" for the ClearClipboard() function. It does copy and paste into word with formatting though, as is below (though I had to comment out the last function to avoid errors):

Sub pasteToWord()

    Dim WordApp As Word.Application  'Need to link Microsoft Word Object library
    Dim wdDoc As Word.Document       'for these to be understood by compiler
    Dim activeMailMessage As Outlook.MailItem
    Dim activeBody As String

If TypeName(ActiveExplorer.Selection.Item(1)) = "MailItem" Then

    'Get a handle on the email
    Set activeMailMessage = ActiveExplorer.Selection.Item(1)

    'Ensure Word Application is open
    Set WordApp = CreateObject("Word.Application")

    'Make Word Application visible
    WordApp.Visible = True

    'Create a new Document and get a handle on it
    Set wdDoc = WordApp.Documents.Add

    'Copy the formatted text:
    activeMailMessage.GetInspector().WordEditor.Range.FormattedText.Copy

    'Paste to the word document
    wdDoc.Range.Paste

    'Clear the clipboard entirely:
     Call ClearClipBoard

End If

End Sub

Public Sub ClearClipBoard()
    Dim oData As New DataObject 'object to use the clipboard -- Compiler error, 
                                'I think I'm missing a reference here.

    oData.SetText Text:=Empty 'Clear
    oData.PutInClipboard 'take in the clipboard to empty it
End Sub

Answer 1

This method will copy the formatted text from the selected mailitem, and paste it in to word document:

Dim WordApp As Word.Application
Dim wdDoc As Word.Document
Dim activeMailMessage As MailItem

If TypeName(ActiveExplorer.Selection.Item(1)) = "MailItem" Then

    'Get a handle on the email
    Set activeMailMessage = ActiveExplorer.Selection.Item(1)

    'Ensure Word Application is open
    Set WordApp = CreateObject("Word.Application")

    'Make Word Application visible
    WordApp.Visible = True

    'Create a new Document and get a handle on it
    Set wdDoc = WordApp.Documents.Add

    'Copy the formatted text:
    activeMailMessage.GetInspector().WordEditor.Range.FormattedText.Copy

    'Paste to the word document
    wdDocument.Range.Paste

    'Clear the clipboard entirely:
     Call ClearClipBoard

End If

NOTE Clearing the clipboard entirely can be done pretty easily with a function like the one described here:

Public Sub ClearClipBoard() 
    Dim oData   As New DataObject 'object to use the clipboard

    oData.SetText Text:=Empty 'Clear
    oData.PutInClipboard 'take in the clipboard to empty it
End Sub 

Answer 2

You can use the Word object model when dealing woth item bodies.

Word is used as an email editor in Outlook. The WordEditor property of the Inspector class returns an instance of the Document class from the Word object model which represents the Body of your email. See Chapter 17: Working with Item Bodies for more information.

As you may see, there is no need to use any extra tools or classes (Clipboard and etc.). You can copy the document using built-in mechanisms or save the document as is.