C# - KeyDown Event Issue in Windows Form

Question

When the main form loads, I am trying to set up a key event handler as follows:

private void FormMain_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
    KeyDown += FormMain_KeyDown;
}

and the function that is called:

private void FormMain_KeyDown(object sender, KeyEventArgs e)
{
    if (e.KeyCode == Keys.Escape)
    {
        // Do something.
    }
}

The problem is that the form doesn't react to Escape (or any other key I tried). And the funny thing is that a different form from the same project uses similar code without any issues. Can anyone please tell me what I am doing wrong?

Tony Hopkinson · Accepted Answer · 2012-08-08 17:11:54Z

6

There's a Property called KeyPreview on the form, you need to set it to true. Then on keypress your handler will fire, then any handler on the control that has focus will.

answered Aug 8, 2012 at 17:11

Tony Hopkinson

20.4k3 gold badges35 silver badges40 bronze badges

Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

6 Comments

IneedHelp Over a year ago

Thank you for the answer (it will let me set it as accepted in 3 minutes)! Is there any reason why I didn't have to set this property to true on the other form?

Tony Hopkinson Over a year ago

Are you sure it isn't? (or set ihn code somewhere) Never been a big fan of this trick myself, I'd rather trap the windows message for the key press. I've had varying results from it over the years, too flaky for me.

IneedHelp Over a year ago

I haven't used KeyPreview anywhere else in my project, except this time. That's why I was wondering that it worked for a different form in the project, but not for the main form. I'd be interested to learn more about the other method you mentioned. Could you provide some references for me to read? Thank you!

Tony Hopkinson Over a year ago

overriding WndProc is what you are looking for.

kashif Over a year ago

@TonyHopkinson I'm extremely surparized to face the same situation in one of my projects where my Students form is successfully firing the KeyDown event without setting the KeyPreview property to true while in another form of mine I did as suggested by you to get the KeyDown event worked

|

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

C# - KeyDown Event Issue in Windows Form

1 Answer 1

6 Comments

Your Answer

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

1 Answer 1

6 Comments

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Related