Best way to implement keyboard shortcuts in a Windows Forms application

Question

I m looking for a best way to implement common Windows keyboard shortcuts  for example Ctrl F  Ctrl N  in my Windows Forms application in C    The application has a main form which hosts many child forms  one at a time   When a user hits Ctrl F  I d like to show a custom search form  The search form would depend on the current open child form in the application   I was thinking of using something like this in the ChildForm KeyDown event      if  e KeyCode    Keys F  amp  amp  Control ModifierKeys    Keys Control             Show search form   But this doesn t work  The event doesn t even fire when you press a key  What is the solution

User · Answer

From the main Form  you have to    Be sure you set KeyPreview to true  TRUE by default  Add MainForm KeyDown     - by which you can set here any shortcuts you want    Additionally I have found this on google and I wanted to share this to those who are still searching for answers   for global   I think you have to be using user32 dll  protected override void WndProc ref Message m        base WndProc ref m        if  m Msg    0x0312                   Note that the three lines below are not needed if you only want to register one hotkey             The below lines are useful in case you want to register multiple keys  which you can use a switch with the id as argument  or if you want to know which key modifier was pressed for some particular reason              Keys key    Keys    int m LParam  gt  gt  16   amp  0xFFFF                       The key of the hotkey that was pressed          KeyModifier modifier    KeyModifier   int m LParam  amp  0xFFFF            The modifier of the hotkey that was pressed          int id   m WParam ToInt32                                              The id of the hotkey that was pressed            MessageBox Show  Hotkey has been pressed                do something           Further read this http   www fluxbytes com csharp how-to-register-a-global-hotkey-for-your-application-in-c

User · Answer

You probably forgot to set the form s KeyPreview property to True  Overriding the ProcessCmdKey   method is the generic solution   protected override bool ProcessCmdKey ref Message msg  Keys keyData      if  keyData     Keys Control   Keys F         MessageBox Show  What the Ctrl F         return true        return base ProcessCmdKey ref msg  keyData

User · Answer

On your Main form   Set KeyPreview to True Add KeyDown event handler with the following code  private void MainForm KeyDown object sender  KeyEventArgs e        if  e Control  amp  amp  e KeyCode    Keys N                SearchForm searchForm   new SearchForm            searchForm Show

User · Answer

If you have a menu then changing ShortcutKeys property of the ToolStripMenuItem should do the trick   If not  you could create one and set its visible property to false

User · Answer

The best way is to use menu mnemonics  i e  to have menu entries in your main form that get assigned the keyboard shortcut you want  Then everything else is handled internally and all you have to do is to implement the appropriate action that gets executed in the Click event handler of that menu entry

User · Answer

Hans s answer could be made a little easier for someone new to this  so here is my version   You do not need to fool with KeyPreview  leave it set to false  To use the code below  just paste it below your form1 load and run with F5 to see it work   protected override void OnKeyPress KeyPressEventArgs ex        string xo   ex KeyChar ToString         if  xo     q     You pressed  q  key on the keyboard               Form2 f2   new Form2            f2 Show

User · Answer

The best way is to use menu mnemonics  i e  to have menu entries in your main form that get assigned the keyboard shortcut you want  Then everything else is handled internally and all you have to do is to implement the appropriate action that gets executed in the Click event handler of that menu entry

User · Answer

In WinForm  we can always get the Control Key status by   bool IsCtrlPressed    Control ModifierKeys  amp  Keys Control     0

User · Answer

If you have a menu then changing ShortcutKeys property of the ToolStripMenuItem should do the trick   If not  you could create one and set its visible property to false

User · Answer

The best way is to use menu mnemonics  i e  to have menu entries in your main form that get assigned the keyboard shortcut you want  Then everything else is handled internally and all you have to do is to implement the appropriate action that gets executed in the Click event handler of that menu entry

User · Answer

You probably forgot to set the form s KeyPreview property to True  Overriding the ProcessCmdKey   method is the generic solution   protected override bool ProcessCmdKey ref Message msg  Keys keyData      if  keyData     Keys Control   Keys F         MessageBox Show  What the Ctrl F         return true        return base ProcessCmdKey ref msg  keyData

User · Answer

You can even try this example   public class MDIParent   System Windows Forms Form       public bool NextTab                     some code            public bool PreviousTab                     some code            protected override bool ProcessCmdKey ref Message message  Keys keys                switch  keys                        case Keys Control   Keys Tab                                  NextTab                    return true                              case Keys Control   Keys Shift   Keys Tab                                  PreviousTab                    return true                                    return base ProcessCmdKey ref message  keys            public class mySecondForm   System Windows Forms Form          some code

User · Answer

Hans s answer could be made a little easier for someone new to this  so here is my version   You do not need to fool with KeyPreview  leave it set to false  To use the code below  just paste it below your form1 load and run with F5 to see it work   protected override void OnKeyPress KeyPressEventArgs ex        string xo   ex KeyChar ToString         if  xo     q     You pressed  q  key on the keyboard               Form2 f2   new Form2            f2 Show

User · Answer

On your Main form   Set KeyPreview to True Add KeyDown event handler with the following code  private void MainForm KeyDown object sender  KeyEventArgs e        if  e Control  amp  amp  e KeyCode    Keys N                SearchForm searchForm   new SearchForm            searchForm Show

User · Answer

If you have a menu then changing ShortcutKeys property of the ToolStripMenuItem should do the trick   If not  you could create one and set its visible property to false

User · Answer

The best way is to use menu mnemonics  i e  to have menu entries in your main form that get assigned the keyboard shortcut you want  Then everything else is handled internally and all you have to do is to implement the appropriate action that gets executed in the Click event handler of that menu entry

User · Answer

In WinForm  we can always get the Control Key status by   bool IsCtrlPressed    Control ModifierKeys  amp  Keys Control     0

User · Answer

You probably forgot to set the form s KeyPreview property to True  Overriding the ProcessCmdKey   method is the generic solution   protected override bool ProcessCmdKey ref Message msg  Keys keyData      if  keyData     Keys Control   Keys F         MessageBox Show  What the Ctrl F         return true        return base ProcessCmdKey ref msg  keyData

User · Answer

From the main Form  you have to    Be sure you set KeyPreview to true  TRUE by default  Add MainForm KeyDown     - by which you can set here any shortcuts you want    Additionally I have found this on google and I wanted to share this to those who are still searching for answers   for global   I think you have to be using user32 dll  protected override void WndProc ref Message m        base WndProc ref m        if  m Msg    0x0312                   Note that the three lines below are not needed if you only want to register one hotkey             The below lines are useful in case you want to register multiple keys  which you can use a switch with the id as argument  or if you want to know which key modifier was pressed for some particular reason              Keys key    Keys    int m LParam  gt  gt  16   amp  0xFFFF                       The key of the hotkey that was pressed          KeyModifier modifier    KeyModifier   int m LParam  amp  0xFFFF            The modifier of the hotkey that was pressed          int id   m WParam ToInt32                                              The id of the hotkey that was pressed            MessageBox Show  Hotkey has been pressed                do something           Further read this http   www fluxbytes com csharp how-to-register-a-global-hotkey-for-your-application-in-c

User · Answer

If you have a menu then changing ShortcutKeys property of the ToolStripMenuItem should do the trick   If not  you could create one and set its visible property to false

User · Answer

You probably forgot to set the form s KeyPreview property to True  Overriding the ProcessCmdKey   method is the generic solution   protected override bool ProcessCmdKey ref Message msg  Keys keyData      if  keyData     Keys Control   Keys F         MessageBox Show  What the Ctrl F         return true        return base ProcessCmdKey ref msg  keyData

User · Answer

You can even try this example   public class MDIParent   System Windows Forms Form       public bool NextTab                     some code            public bool PreviousTab                     some code            protected override bool ProcessCmdKey ref Message message  Keys keys                switch  keys                        case Keys Control   Keys Tab                                  NextTab                    return true                              case Keys Control   Keys Shift   Keys Tab                                  PreviousTab                    return true                                    return base ProcessCmdKey ref message  keys            public class mySecondForm   System Windows Forms Form          some code

[c#] Best way to implement keyboard shortcuts in a Windows Forms application?

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