Key pressed (anywhere)

[Electroman]

What code should I use so that when a key is pressed (even if it is pressed in another program) my program can react.

In any examples you give can you just add the key pressed to a string. And then I can easily modefiy it to my needs.

Thanx for any help provided.

[Jop]

'In a module
Public Const DT_CENTER = &H1
Public Const DT_WORDBREAK = &H10
Type RECT
    Left As Long
    Top As Long
    Right As Long
    Bottom As Long
End Type
Declare Function DrawTextEx Lib "user32" Alias "DrawTextExA" (ByVal hDC As Long, ByVal lpsz As String, ByVal n As Long, lpRect As RECT, ByVal un As Long, ByVal lpDrawTextParams As Any) As Long
Declare Function SetTimer Lib "user32" (ByVal hwnd As Long, ByVal nIDEvent As Long, ByVal uElapse As Long, ByVal lpTimerFunc As Long) As Long
Declare Function KillTimer Lib "user32" (ByVal hwnd As Long, ByVal nIDEvent As Long) As Long
Declare Function GetAsyncKeyState Lib "user32" (ByVal vKey As Long) As Integer
Declare Function SetRect Lib "user32" (lpRect As RECT, ByVal X1 As Long, ByVal Y1 As Long, ByVal X2 As Long, ByVal Y2 As Long) As Long
Global Cnt As Long, sSave As String, sOld As String, Ret As String
Dim Tel As Long
Function GetPressedKey() As String
    For Cnt = 32 To 128
        'Get the keystate of a specified key
        If GetAsyncKeyState(Cnt) <> 0 Then
            GetPressedKey = Chr$(Cnt)
            Exit For
        End If
    Next Cnt
End Function
Sub TimerProc(ByVal hwnd As Long, ByVal nIDEvent As Long, ByVal uElapse As Long, ByVal lpTimerFunc As Long)
    Ret = GetPressedKey
    If Ret <> sOld Then
        sOld = Ret
        sSave = sSave + sOld
    End If
End Sub

'In a form
Private Sub Form_Load()
    'KPD-Team 1999
    'URL: http://www.allapi.net/
    'E-Mail: [email protected]
    Me.Caption = "Key Spy"
    'Create an API-timer
    SetTimer Me.hwnd, 0, 1, AddressOf TimerProc
End Sub
Private Sub Form_Paint()
    Dim R As RECT
    Const mStr = "Start this project, go to another application, type something, switch back to this application and unload the form. If you unload the form, a messagebox with all the typed keys will be shown."
    'Clear the form
    Me.Cls
    'API uses pixels
    Me.ScaleMode = vbPixels
    'Set the rectangle's values
    SetRect R, 0, 0, Me.ScaleWidth, Me.ScaleHeight
    'Draw the text on the form
    DrawTextEx Me.hDC, mStr, Len(mStr), R, DT_WORDBREAK Or DT_CENTER, ByVal 0&
End Sub
Private Sub Form_Resize()
    Form_Paint
End Sub
Private Sub Form_Unload(Cancel As Integer)
    'Kill our API-timer
    KillTimer Me.hwnd, 0
    'Show all the typed keys
    MsgBox sSave
End Sub

this will get all the typed characters to the string sSave.

[Electroman]

Thanx thats a great help.