Question

I am creating an Excel add-in written in VB.NET. I would like to bind KeyDown and KeyUp events to the spreadsheet to record when the user presses and releases the arrow keys while navigating the spreadsheet.

Ideally, these events would be built into Excel alongside the native SheetActivate and SheetSelectionChange events, for example. Alas, they are not.

Please note that I am NOT interested in the KeyDown/KeyUp events for Windows form controls, as I am not using a Windows form for this. Rather, I want to create these events at the Excel application, workbook, or worksheet level.

Answer 1

You could use the Windows API call GetAsyncKeyState in conjunction with the SelectionChange event

Here’s a small VBA snippet to demonstrate

Private Declare Function GetAsyncKeyState Lib "user32" (ByVal vKey As Long) As Integer

Private Sub Worksheet_SelectionChange(ByVal Target As Range)
    Dim Key As Long
    For Key = 3 To 255
        If GetAsyncKeyState(Key) Then
            MsgBox "KeyCode: " & Key & " was pressed."
        End If
    Next
End Sub