[RESOLVED] Cancel arrow buttons event tabcontrol

Hi,

When I click the left or right arrow buttons on the keyboard my tabcontrol tabpage changes from one tab to another.

How can I cancel the arrow buttons from changing the tab pages?

In other words how can I disable the arrow buttons when the tabpage has focus?

Is it possible to do this without extending the base class?

Set the form's keypreview property to true, and add this code for the keydown handler :

Code:

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    Private Sub Form1_KeyDown(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.Windows.Forms.KeyEventArgs) Handles Me.KeyDown

        If e.KeyCode = Keys.Left Or e.KeyCode = Keys.Right Then
            e.SuppressKeyPress = True
        End If
    End Sub

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NB this will trap the left and right arrows for all controls, you may want to check that the form's currently selected control first

This would trap it only for the specific control :

Code:

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        If Me.ActiveControl Is TabControl1 Then
            If e.KeyCode = Keys.Left Or e.KeyCode = Keys.Right Then
                e.SuppressKeyPress = True
            End If
        End If

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Paul's solution is correct, although you would be better off just handling the KeyDown event of the TabControl rather than the form. I'd always recommend using OrElse rather than Or too.

Awesome, thanks heaps guys that worked a treat.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by jmcilhinney

Paul's solution is correct, although you would be better off just handling the KeyDown event of the TabControl rather than the form. I'd always recommend using OrElse rather than Or too.

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Quite right - for some reason I had in the back of my mind that there was some issue with trapping special keys on the tabcontrol but I've just tried it and I was mistaken.

You would indeed be better off just applying the event to the tabcontrol rather than the form.