caps lock

[greenba]

Hi,

How to enable caps locks in my app. so that caps is always on in my app. and that the user cannot turn it off.

[iPrank]

Turn On Caps Lock : http://support.microsoft.com/?id=177674

User cannot turn it off : Don't know. Here is an alternative,
set the form's KeyPreview = True at design time.
Then in the form's Form_KeyDown event turn on the Caps Lock.

[capsulecorpjx]

Hi,

How to enable caps locks in my app. so that caps is always on in my app. and that the user cannot turn it off.

WHY WOULD YOU WANT TO DO THAT?

[guyvdn]

It can be done like this

Const VK_CAPITAL = &H14
Const VK_NUMLOCK = &H90
Const VK_SCROLL = &H91
 
Private Type KeyboardBytes
     kbByte(0 To 255) As Byte
End Type
Private Declare Function GetKeyState Lib "user32" (ByVal nVirtKey As Long) As Integer
Private Declare Function SetKeyboardState Lib "user32" (kbArray As KeyboardBytes) As Long
Dim kbArray As KeyboardBytes
 
Private Sub Form_KeyDown(KeyCode As Integer, Shift As Integer)
    If KeyCode = vbKeyCapital Then
        TurnOn VK_CAPITAL
    End If
End Sub
 
Private Sub Form_Load()
    TurnOn VK_CAPITAL
End Sub
 
Private Sub TurnOn(vkKey As Long)
    'Change a key
    kbArray.kbByte(vkKey) = 1
    'Set the keyboard state
    SetKeyboardState kbArray
End Sub

[iPrank]

@guyvdn
The problem with SetKeyboardState is, it will set the Caps Lock state correctly, but it will not turn on keyboard LED on Win2000/XP systems. It may confuse the user.

On Win200/XP systems, we need to simulate a keypress using keybd_event.

[d3gerald]

is there really a need for you to have the caps lock always on. if its just for a few textboxes, used the keypress event of the textbox

private sub text1_keypress(keyascii as integer)
    keyascii = asc(ucase(chr(keyascii)))
end sub

[guyvdn]

@guyvdn
The problem with SetKeyboardState is, it will set the Caps Lock state correctly, but it will not turn on keyboard LED on Win2000/XP systems. It may confuse the user.

I didn’t notice that, I have a wireless keyboard and the leds are on a docking station that’s urm somewhere on my desk

is there really a need for you to have the caps lock always on. if its just for a few textboxes, used the keypress event of the textbox

If you set keypreview of the form to true you can use the keypress event of the form. You only have to write the code once and it will work for all the controls. But the keyboard LED will also not be turned on.

[iPrank]

PS2 or USB keyboard ? Mine is a plain PS2.
May be other members can give more different 'input'.

[Shuja Ali]

Hi,

How to enable caps locks in my app. so that caps is always on in my app. and that the user cannot turn it off.

I wouldn't do this. I wouldn't want Users to get annoyed when they CAPS lock turned on even when they didn't do anything. If you actually need UpperCase characters in your application, then you can always use UCase$ to convert the text in UpperCase. But doing unexpected is not what Users like.