To put data on the clipboard, an application first calls the WinOpenClipbrd function to verify that other applications are not trying to retrieve or set clipboard data. The WinOpenClipbrd function does not return if another thread has the clipboard open; it waits until either the clipboard is free or there is a message in the message queue of the calling thread. In practice, the WinOpenClipbrd function waits until the clipboard is available or until the calling application responds to a message. If the clipboard cannot be opened before a message arrives, the application receives the message, and the WinOpenClipbrd function continues to try to open the clipboard. The WinOpenClipbrd function does not return until the clipboard is open. However, the application continues to receive messages.

Once an application successfully opens the clipboard, it must remove any previously stored data on the clipboard by calling the WinEmptyClipbrd function. If the clipboard is not cleared, writing an existing format on the clipboard replaces the old data in that format with the new data. Old data in other formats remains on the clipboard.

After emptying the clipboard, an application should write its data to the clipboard in as many standard formats as possible. For each format, the application passes the data to the clipboard by calling the WinSetClipbrdData function, specifying each data format. The clipboard is not cleared when a new format is written to it; all new data formats coexist on the clipboard until it is cleared by the next clipboard user.

If an application passes NULL as the ulData parameter of the WinSetClipbrdData function, applications must render the data on request.

Finally, when an application finishes writing the clipboard data, it must release the clipboard by calling the WinCloseClipbrd function so that other applications can use the clipboard.