Keyboard shortcuts in WPF

Question

I know about using   instead of  amp   but I m looking at all the Ctrl   type shortcuts   Ctrl Z for undo  Ctrl S for save  etc   Is there a  standard  way for implementing these in WPF applications  Or is it a case of roll your own and wire them up to whatever command control

User · Answer

I had a similar problem and found  aliwa s answer to be the most helpful and most elegant solution  however  I needed a specific key combination  Ctrl   1  Unfortunately I got the following error       1  cannot be used as a value for  Key   Numbers are not valid enumeration values    With a bit of further search  I modified  aliwa s answer to the following    lt Window InputBindings gt       lt KeyBinding Gesture  Ctrl 1  Command   Binding MyCommand    gt   lt  Window InputBindings gt    I found this to work great for pretty well any combination I needed

User · Answer

It depends on where you want to use those    TextBoxBase-derived controls already implement those shortcuts  If you want to use custom keyboard shortcuts you should take a look on Commands and Input gestures  Here is a small tutorial from Switch on the Code  WPF Tutorial - Command Bindings and Custom Commands

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VB NET  Public Shared SaveCommand AltS As New RoutedCommand  Inside the loaded event  SaveCommand AltS InputGestures Add New KeyGesture Key S  ModifierKeys Control    Me CommandBindings Add New CommandBinding SaveCommand AltS  AddressOf Me save    No XAML is needed

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Documenting this answer for others  as there is a much simpler way to do this that is rarely referenced  and doesn t require touching the XAML at all   To link a keyboard shortcut  in the Window constructor simply add a new KeyBinding to the InputBindings collection  As the command  pass in your arbitrary command class that implements ICommand  For the execute method  simply implement whatever logic you need  In my example below  my WindowCommand class takes a delegate that it will execute whenever invoked  When I construct the new WindowCommand to pass in with my binding  I simply indicate in my initializer  the method that I want the WindowCommand to execute   You can use this pattern to come up with your own quick keyboard shortcuts   public YourWindow     inside any WPF Window constructor               add this one statement to bind a new keyboard command shortcut    InputBindings Add new KeyBinding    add a new key-binding  and pass in your command object instance which contains the Execute method which WPF will execute       new WindowCommand this                   ExecuteDelegate   TogglePause   REPLACE TogglePause with your method delegate          new KeyGesture Key P  ModifierKeys Control                Create a simple WindowCommand class which takes an execution delegate to fire off any method set on it   public class WindowCommand   ICommand       private MainWindow  window         Set this delegate when you initialize a new object  This is the method the command will execute  You can also change this delegate type if you need to      public Action ExecuteDelegate   get  set           You don t have to add a parameter that takes a constructor  I ve just added one in case I need access to the window directly      public WindowCommand MainWindow window                 window   window               always called before executing the command  mine just always returns true     public bool CanExecute object parameter                return true    mine always returns true  yours can use a new CanExecute delegate  or add custom logic to this method instead             public event EventHandler CanExecuteChanged    i m not using this  but it s required by the interface        the important method that executes the actual command logic     public void Execute object parameter                if  ExecuteDelegate    null                        ExecuteDelegate                      else                       throw new InvalidOperationException

User · Answer

One way is to add your shortcut keys to the commands themselves them as InputGestures  Commands are implemented as RoutedCommands  This enables the shortcut keys to work even if they re not hooked up to any controls  And since menu items understand keyboard gestures  they ll automatically display your shortcut key in the menu items text  if you hook that command up to your menu item   Create static attribute to hold a command  preferably as a property in a static class you create for commands - but for a simple example  just using a static attribute in window cs    public static RoutedCommand MyCommand   new RoutedCommand      Add the shortcut key s  that should invoke method   MyCommand InputGestures Add new KeyGesture Key S  ModifierKeys Control      Create a command binding that points to your method to call on execute  Put these in the command bindings for the UI element under which it should work for  e g   the window  and the method    lt Window CommandBindings gt        lt CommandBinding Command  quot  x Static local MyWindow MyCommand  quot  Executed  quot MyCommandExecuted quot   gt    lt  Window CommandBindings gt    private void MyCommandExecuted object sender  ExecutedRoutedEventArgs e

User · Answer

Special case  your shortcut doesn t trigger if the focus is on an element that  quot isn t native quot   In my case for example  a focus on a WpfCurrencyTextbox won t trigger shortcuts defined in your XAML  defined like in oliwa s answer   I fixed this issue by making my shortcut global with the NHotkey package   https   github com thomaslevesque NHotkey https   thomaslevesque com 2014 02 05 wpf-declare-global-hotkeys-in-xaml-with-nhotkey   use web archive org if the link is broken   In short  for XAML  all you need to do is to replace  lt KeyBinding Gesture  quot Ctrl Alt Add quot  Command  quot  Binding IncrementCommand  quot    gt   by  lt KeyBinding Gesture  quot Ctrl Alt Add quot  Command  quot  Binding IncrementCommand  quot              HotkeyManager RegisterGlobalHotkey  quot True quot    gt   Answer has also been posted to  How can I register a global hot key to say CTRL SHIFT  LETTER  using WPF and  NET 3 5

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Although the top answers are correct  I personally like to work with attached properties to enable the solution to be applied to any UIElement  especially when the Window is not aware of the element that should be focused  In my experience I often see a composition of several view models and user controls  where the window is often nothing more that the root container   Snippet  public sealed class AttachedProperties          Define the key gesture type converter      System ComponentModel TypeConverter typeof System Windows Input KeyGestureConverter        public static KeyGesture GetFocusShortcut DependencyObject dependencyObject                return  KeyGesture dependencyObject  GetValue FocusShortcutProperty              public static void SetFocusShortcut DependencyObject dependencyObject  KeyGesture value                dependencyObject  SetValue FocusShortcutProperty  value                   lt summary gt          Enables window-wide focus shortcut for an  lt see cref  UIElement   gt            lt  summary gt         Using a DependencyProperty as the backing store for FocusShortcut   This enables animation  styling  binding  etc        public static readonly DependencyProperty FocusShortcutProperty           DependencyProperty RegisterAttached  FocusShortcut   typeof KeyGesture   typeof AttachedProperties   new FrameworkPropertyMetadata null  FrameworkPropertyMetadataOptions None  new PropertyChangedCallback OnFocusShortcutChanged          private static void OnFocusShortcutChanged DependencyObject d  DependencyPropertyChangedEventArgs e                if    d is UIElement element     e NewValue    e OldValue              return           var window   FindParentWindow d           if  window    null              return           var gesture   GetFocusShortcut d           if  gesture    null                           Remove previous added input binding              for  int i   0  i  lt  window InputBindings Count  i                                  if  window InputBindings i  Gesture    e OldValue  amp  amp  window InputBindings i  Command is FocusElementCommand                      window InputBindings RemoveAt i--                                   else                          Add new input binding with the dedicated FocusElementCommand                 see  https   gist github com shuebner20 349d044ed5236a7f2568cb17f3ed713d             var command   new FocusElementCommand element               window InputBindings Add new InputBinding command  gesture                        With this attached property you can define a focus shortcut for any UIElement  It will automatically register the input binding at the window containing the element   Usage  XAML    lt TextBox x Name  SearchTextBox           Text  Binding Path SearchText           local AttachedProperties FocusShortcutKey  Ctrl Q   gt    Source code  The full sample including the FocusElementCommand implementation is available as gist  https   gist github com shuebner20 c6a5191be23da549d5004ee56bcc352d  Disclaimer  You may use this code everywhere and free of charge  Please keep in mind  that this is a sample that is not suitable for heavy usage  For example  there is no garbage collection of removed elements because the Command will hold a strong reference to the element

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How to associate the command with a MenuItem    lt MenuItem Header  My command  Command   x Static local MyWindow MyCommand    gt

User · Answer

Try this  First create a RoutedCommand object  RoutedCommand newCmd   new RoutedCommand    newCmd InputGestures Add new KeyGesture Key N  ModifierKeys Control    CommandBindings Add new CommandBinding newCmd  btnNew Click

User · Answer

I found this to be exactly what I was looking for related to key binding in WPF    lt Window InputBindings gt           lt KeyBinding Modifiers  Control                      Key  N                      Command   Binding CreateCustomerCommand     gt   lt  Window InputBindings gt    See blog post MVVM CommandReference and KeyBinding

[wpf] Keyboard shortcuts in WPF

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