KeyboardShortcuts.md

title	KeyboardShortcuts
parent	tbIDE Package
permalink	/tB/Packages/tbIDE/KeyboardShortcuts
has_toc	false

KeyboardShortcuts class

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The IDE's keyboard-shortcut registry --- reached through Host.KeyboardShortcuts. Call Add to bind a key combination to a callback. There is no removal API; the registration is released when the addin is unloaded.

' Context for the sample below: the flag the addin toggles, which belongs to the
' addin rather than to the IDE API.
Public debugMode As Boolean

Private Sub Host_OnProjectLoaded()
    Host.KeyboardShortcuts.Add "{SHIFT}F12", AddressOf ToggleDebugMode
End Sub

Private Sub ToggleDebugMode()
    debugMode = Not debugMode
    Host.DebugConsole.PrintText "Debug mode " & If(debugMode, "ON", "OFF")
End Sub

The shortcut fires when the key is released, wherever the focus is in the IDE's window --- in the code editor, in the DEBUG CONSOLE, or on nothing at all --- except while a dialog or the rename box is open. If the IDE has a command of its own on the same key, that command runs as well: F1, for one, also expands or collapses the signature help while it is showing. Shift+F12 has no command in the IDE's default keymap.

Note

In BETA 983, a shortcut that includes {CTRL} or {ALT} does not fire when the user presses it. The IDE matches an add-in's shortcut when the key is released, against a press of the same key less than half a second earlier, and it does not record a key pressed while Ctrl or Alt is held down. Such a shortcut fires only if the same key was also pressed on its own within that half second. Use a function key, alone or with {SHIFT}.

Methods

Add

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Registers a new keyboard shortcut.

Syntax: keyboardShortcuts.Add keyString, Callback

keyString : required A String naming the key, after any of the prefixes {CTRL}, {SHIFT} and {ALT}. The prefixes must come in that order: the IDE builds the string it compares in that order, so "{SHIFT}{CTRL}d" never matches. Add converts the string to lower case and removes its spaces, so "{SHIFT}F12" and "{shift} f12" are the same shortcut. A letter names the key that types it on a US keyboard, whatever the active layout. Any other key is named as the browser names it --- f1, enter, escape --- and a key pressed with Shift by the character it types, so Shift+1 is "{SHIFT}!" on a US layout.

Example	Combination	Fires in BETA 983
"f1"	F1	yes
"{SHIFT}F12"	Shift + F12	yes
"{SHIFT}d"	Shift + D	yes
"d"	D	yes, and also each time a d is typed
"{CTRL}d"	Ctrl + D	no --- see the note above
"{CTRL}{SHIFT}d"	Ctrl + Shift + D	no
"{ALT}f"	Alt + F	no

Callback : required The callback. Pass AddressOf a sub of signature Sub() (no arguments). LongPtr.

A shortcut on a key that types a character fires each time that character is typed, in the code editor as anywhere else, and the character is typed as well. That rules out plain letters for most add-ins; a function key does not have the problem.

The callback runs inside the compiler's process, as all of an add-in's code does.