Visual Basic Forum for Visual Basic Programmers VB

[DoobieKeebler]

I'm writing a WordPad-type editor and I want to allow keyboard shortcuts for things like Bold and Italics. So I checked out the MSDN Library and copied the example code from the KeyUp topic. I went to test it and got a nasty surprise.

I tried pressing Ctrl+B and my code worked fine. Then I tried Ctrl+Alt+B and my Ctrl+B code fired. After testing a few more key combinations I found that as long as Ctrl was pressed, my code fired. Hmmm. After spending a few minutes studying the code, it hit me. The code checks if the Ctrl key is pressed, but it doesn't check if it's the only one of the three modifier keys pressed.

I added a few more lines of code and got it to work like I though it would work originally. You just have to test for the modifier keys you do and don't want pressed. The original code is in red. My contributions are in green.

Private Sub Text1_KeyDown (KeyCode As Integer, Shift As Integer
Dim ShiftDown, AltDown, CtrlDown
Dim CtrlOnlyDown, AltOnlyDown, ShiftOnlyDown
Dim CtrlShiftOnlyDown, CtrlAltOnlyDown, AltShiftOnlyDown
Dim CtrlAltShiftDown

ShiftlDowm = (Shift And vbShiftMask) > 0
AltDown = (Shift And vbAltMask) > 0
CtrlDown = (Shift And vbCtrlMask) > 0

CtrlOnlyDown = (CtrlDown And (Not AltDown) And (Not ShiftDown))
AltOnlyDown = ((Not CtrlDown) And AltDown And (Not ShiftDown))
ShiftOnlyDown = ((Not CtrlDown) And (Not AltDown) And ShiftDown)
CtrlAltOnlyDown = (CtrlDown And AltDown And (Not ShiftDown))
CtrlShiftOnlyDown = (CtrlDown And (Not AltDown) And (ShiftDown)
AltShiftOnlyDown = ((Not CtrlDown) And AltDown And ShiftDown)
CtrlAltShiftDown = (CtrlDown And AltDown And ShiftDown)

' Test for the key combinations
If CtrlOnlyDown And (KeyCode = vbKeyB) Then
' Fire Ctrl+B code (normally Bold)
End If

If CtrlShiftOnlyDown And (KeyCode = vbKeyS) Then
' Fire Ctrl+Shift+S code (normally Save As)
End If
End Sub

Hopefully this will make somebody's life a little easier now that you don't have to test for modifier key combos in a particular order.

[Under--Score]

I'm sorry but what does it mean if you "code fires"?

[DoobieKeebler]

In that usage it means that bit of code was invoked or was run. "Fired" ("fires") has a couple of nearly-similar meanings. When a user clicks a button and you've written code for the Click event, we sometimes say the program fires the click event. If something happens and I display a message box, I might say my code fires off a message box.

It's an old term, used by old programmers *cough*Doug*cough* and picked up by some of us who were taught by those old programmers. I'm not sure if people use that term anymore, but old slang dies hard.
_________________
Always take into account what a user would never ever in a million years do, because someone will.

"In theory, there's no difference between theory and practice. In practice, there is." -- Yogi Berra

[Under--Score]

With regards to you original post
"Private Sub Text1_KeyDown (KeyCode As Integer, Shift As Integer
Dim ShiftDown, AltDown, CtrlDown "

Does that mean all the events in the sub will happen whe you press ctrl alt del?

Could it also be employed as following:

Private Sub Text1_KeyDown (KeyCode as Integer, A as integer)

meaning that whenever the A key is pushed something happens? (This is not relevant to your problem.

[DoobieKeebler]

[Under--Score]

So if I put in:

[DoobieKeebler]

Yes, your If block is exactly how it works. But you don't need the Dim statement. The variable is already DIMmed (in a way) in the Sub declaration.
_________________
Always take into account what a user would never ever in a million years do, because someone will.

"In theory, there's no difference between theory and practice. In practice, there is." -- Yogi Berra