Question

I’m experiencing some troubles using mnemonic keys in Windows Forms:

Simply having a form with a button, which uses ALT+s as the accelerator:

this.searchButton = new System.Windows.Forms.Button();
this.searchButton.Text = "&search";

The button action is executed by simply pressing “s” (without pressing the ALT key).
I have checked some other applications, and the accelerator actions are only executed when the ALT key is pressed.

• Is this a .NET problem?
• How could address this issue?

Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

This is normal behavior for .NET (“by design”, they say).

Here is an article that should help with your issue – not simple or pretty to start out with, but once it’s done, any shortcut keys you set up can be easily added:

Building Keyboard Accelerators into .NET Windows Forms Applications – Code Guru

Basically, this solution involves creating a class, loading a hash table, and overriding ProcessCmdKey to set up your own accelerator handler.