Question

I’ve created custom button derived from a normal .Net button and have added the following property to add a short cut key combination:

public Keys ShortCutKey { get; set; }

I want this combination to fire the click event of the button but have no idea how to implement this when the button is placed on a form. I know the standard way of doing a button shortcut is to use the & before the short cut character but I need to use a key combination.

Any ideas?

Many Thanks

Answer 1

Override the form’s ProcessCmdKey() method to detect shortcut keystrokes. Like this:

    private bool findShortCut(Control.ControlCollection ctls, Keys keydata) {
        foreach (Control ctl in ctls) {
            var btn = ctl as MyButton;
            if (btn != null && btn.ShortCutKey == keydata) {
                btn.PerformClick();
                return true;
            }
            if (findShortCut(ctl.Controls, keydata)) return true;
        }
        return false;
    }

    protected override bool ProcessCmdKey(ref Message msg, Keys keyData) {
        if (findShortCut(this.Controls, keyData)) return true;
        return base.ProcessCmdKey(ref msg, keyData);
    }

Where MyButton is assumed to be your custom button control class.