Applications that use the clipboard to move data within the documents of the application can use private clipboard-data formats when standard formats are insufficient for representing clipboard data. For example, a word processor might have a rich-text format that contains font and style information in addition to the usual text characters. Clearly, if the word processor uses the clipboard to support cut, copy, and paste operations for moving data in its documents, a standard text format will be inadequate.

In such case, the word processor should write at least two formats to the clipboard for each cut or copy operation: a standard text format representing the text of the current selection and a private rich-text format representing the true state of the selection. If the word processor performs a paste operation by using clipboard data, it can use the rich-text format to retain all formatting. If another application requests the same data, it can use the standard-text format if it does not recognize the private format. Also, the word processor should be able to render data in CF_BITMAP and CF_METAFILE formats for painting and drawing applications.