Fix: Excel VBA “User-defined type not defined”: DataObject

Problem

An Excel VBA subroutine that involves interaction with the Windows Clipboard fails to run with the error: “Compile error: User-defined type not defined.”  The line of code highlighted by Excel as being the cause of the error includes a reference to the “DataObject” object type.

Solution

(Tested on my machine with Excel 2003 SP3)

In the Microsoft Visual Basic editor:

• Stop debugging by clicking the “Stop” button on the toolbar (if debugging isn’t already stopped).
• Tools menu | References
• In the list of available references, find “Microsoft Forms 2.0 Object Library”, check it, and click OK.  (For me, this was the 2nd unchecked item from the top of the list; it wasn’t sorted alphabetically in the list like most of the rest of the listed items.)
• Run the macro again.

That’s it!  Hope this helps!