Low-Level Keyboarding involves handling advanced keyboard shortcuts and detecting certain user actions.

Intro

A few key points:

Keyboard Events

Here are the keyboard events and the order in which they occur:

Event Key Parameters Notes
KeyPress  KeyAscii For ASCII characters only. This includes letters, digits, punctuation, ENTER, TAB, and BACKSPACE.
KeyDown KeyCode
Shift		 Events that KeyPress cannot handle:
  • SHIFT, CTRL, and ALT combinations.
  • Arrow keys. Some controls (command buttons, option buttons, and check boxes) do not receive arrow-key events. They use arrow keys to cause movement to another control.
  • PAGEUP and PAGEDOWN.
  • Numeric keypad events can be distinguished from the rest of the keyboard. The ENTER on the numeric keypad can be distinguished from the RETURN key.
  • Distinguishing between the release of a key from the initial pressing of a key.
KeyUp

SHIFT, CTRL, and ALT

You can determine what combination of SHIFT, CTRL, and ALT was pressed for a given key event using the following code (note that it will work for mouse events too):

Private Sub Text1_KeyDown(KeyCode As Integer, _
      Shift As Integer)
   Dim iShiftKey as Integer
   iShiftKey = Shift And 7
   Select Case iShiftKey
      Case 1 ' or vbShiftMask
         Print "You pressed the SHIFT key."
      Case 2 ' or vbCtrlMask
         Print "You pressed the CTRL key."
      Case 4 ' or vbAltMask
         Print "You pressed the ALT key."
      Case 3
         Print "You pressed both SHIFT and CTRL."
      Case 5
         Print "You pressed both SHIFT and ALT."
      Case 6
         Print "You pressed both CTRL and ALT."
      Case 7
         Print "You pressed SHIFT, CTRL, and ALT."
      End Select
End Sub

KeyAscii

Code Char Code Char Code Char Code Char
0 ^@ 32 [space] 64 @ 96 `
1 ^A 33 ! 65 A 97 a
2 ^B 34 " 66 B 98 b
3 ^C 35 # 67 C 99 c
4 ^D 36 $ 68 D 100 d
5 ^E 37 % 69 E 101 e
6 ^F 3 & 70 F 102 f
7 ^G 39 ' 71 G 103 g
8 [backspace]^H* 40 ( 72 H 104 h
9 [horizontal tab]^I* 41 ) 73 I 105 i
10 [line feed]^J* 42 * 74 J 106 j
11 [vertical tab]^K 43 + 75 K 107 k
12 [new page]^L 44 , 76 L 108 l
13 [carriage return]^M* 45 - 77 M 109 m
14 ^N 46 . 78 N 110 n
15 ^O 47 / 79 O 111 o
16 ^P 48 0 80 P 112 p
17 ^Q 49 1 81 Q 113 q
18 ^R 50 2 82 R 114 r
19 ^S 51 3 83 S 115 s
20 ^T 52 4 84 T 116 t
21 ^U 53 5 85 U 117 u
22 ^V 54 6 86 V 118 v
23 ^W 55 7 87 W 119 w
24 ^X 56 8 88 X 120 x
25 ^Y 57 9 89 Y 121 y
26 ^Z 58 : 90 Z 122 z
27 ^[ 59 ; 91 [ 123 {
28 ^\ 60 < 92 \ 124 |
29 ^] 61 = 93 ] 125 }
30 ^^ 62 > 94 ^ 126 ~
31 ^_ 63 ? 95 _ 127

DEL

Codes 0-31 are control characters.

* These are commonly used.

KeyCode

Misc. KeyCodes

Constant Value Description
vbKeyLButton 1 Left mouse button
vbKeyRButton 2 Right mouse button
vbKeyCancel 3 CANCEL key
vbKeyMButton 4 Middle mouse button
vbKeyBack 8 BACKSPACE key
vbKeyTab 9 TAB key
vbKeyClear 12 CLEAR key
vbKeyReturn 13 ENTER key
vbKeyShift 16 SHIFT key
vbKeyControl 17 CTRL key
vbKeyMenu 18 MENU key
vbKeyPause 19 PAUSE key
vbKeyCapital 20 CAPS LOCK key
vbKeyEscape 27 ESC key
vbKeySpace 32 SPACEBAR key
vbKeyPageUp 33 PAGE UP key
vbKeyPageDown 34 PAGE DOWN key
vbKeyEnd 35 END key
vbKeyHome 36 HOME key
vbKeyLeft 37 LEFT ARROW key
vbKeyUp 38 UP ARROW key
vbKeyRight 39 RIGHT ARROW key
vbKeyDown 40 DOWN ARROW key
vbKeySelect 41 SELECT key
vbKeyPrint 42 PRINT SCREEN key
vbKeyExecute 43 EXECUTE key
vbKeySnapshot 44 SNAPSHOT key
vbKeyInsert 45 INS key
vbKeyDelete 46 DEL key
vbKeyHelp 47 HELP key
vbKeyNumlock 144 NUM LOCK key

Alphabet KeyCodes

KeyA Through KeyZ Are the Same as Their ASCII Equivalents: 'A' Through 'Z'

Constant Value Description
vbKeyA 65 A key
vbKeyB 66 B key
vbKeyC 67 C key
vbKeyD 68 D key
vbKeyE 69 E key
vbKeyF 70 F key
vbKeyG 71 G key
vbKeyH 72 H key
vbKeyI 73 I key
vbKeyJ 74 J key
vbKeyK 75 K key
vbKeyL 76 L key
vbKeyM 77 M key
vbKeyN 78 N key
vbKeyO 79 O key
vbKeyP 80 P key
vbKeyQ 81 Q key
vbKeyR 82 R key
vbKeyS 83 S key
vbKeyT 84 T key
vbKeyU 85 U key
vbKeyV 86 V key
vbKeyW 87 W key
vbKeyX 88 X key
vbKeyY 89 Y key
vbKeyZ 90 Z key

Number KeyCodes

Key0 Through Key9 Are the Same as Their ASCII Equivalents: '0' Through '9

Constant Value Description
vbKey0 48 0 key
vbKey1 49 1 key
vbKey2 50 2 key
vbKey3 51 3 key
vbKey4 52 4 key
vbKey5 53 5 key
vbKey6 54 6 key
vbKey7 55 7 key
vbKey8 56 8 key
vbKey9 57 9 key

Numeric Keypad KeyCodes

Constant Value Description
vbKeyNumpad0 96 0 key
vbKeyNumpad1 97 1 key
vbKeyNumpad2 98 2 key
vbKeyNumpad3 99 3 key
vbKeyNumpad4 100 4 key
vbKeyNumpad5 101 5 key
vbKeyNumpad6 102 6 key
vbKeyNumpad7 103 7 key
vbKeyNumpad8 104 8 key
vbKeyNumpad9 105 9 key
vbKeyMultiply 106 MULTIPLICATION SIGN (*) key
vbKeyAdd 107 PLUS SIGN (+) key
vbKeySeparator 108 ENTER (keypad) key
vbKeySubtract 109 MINUS SIGN (-) key
vbKeyDecimal 110 DECIMAL POINT(.) key
vbKeyDivide 111 DIVISION SIGN (/) key

Function Key KeyCodes

Constant Value Description
vbKeyF1 112 F1 key
vbKeyF2 113 F2 key
vbKeyF3 114 F3 key
vbKeyF4 115 F4 key
vbKeyF5 116 F5 key
vbKeyF6 117 F6 key
vbKeyF7 118 F7 key
vbKeyF8 119 F8 key
vbKeyF9 120 F9 key
vbKeyF10 121 F10 key
vbKeyF11 122 F11 key
vbKeyF12 123 F12 key
vbKeyF13 124 F13 key
vbKeyF14 125 F14 key
vbKeyF15 126 F15 key
vbKeyF16 127 F16 key

Page Modified: (Hand noted: 2007-10-03 18:30:56Z) (Auto noted: 2007-11-17 06:36:19Z)