Global keypress?

[Skyline]

Hello there,

How it would be possible to carry out an event which runs always when some key is pressed, wherever the focus is. But only when the form is activated where the event is...

Hmm... The explanation was little bit confused but I hope that you will figure out what I mean...

- Ville

Set the Form's KeyPreview property to True.

Private Sub Form_KeyPress(KeyAscii As Integer)
Select Case KeyAscii
    Case 96
    MsgBox "~"
End Select
End Sub

This will work no matter which control is selected.

[Jop]

To capture all keypresses in the whole OS use

'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 save everything to sSave

A much more simpler way, since I'm always trying to make life easier .

Private Declare Function GetAsyncKeyState _
 Lib "user32" (ByVal vKey As Long) As Integer

Private Sub Form_Load()    
Timer1.Interval = 1
End Sub

Private Sub Timer1_Timer()    
Dim i As Integer    
For i = 3 To 255       
If GetAsyncKeyState(i) Then Debug.Print Chr(i) 
Next 
End Sub

[batori]

A much more simpler way, since I'm always trying to make life easier .

Private Declare Function GetAsyncKeyState _
 Lib "user32" (ByVal vKey As Long) As Integer

Private Sub Form_Load()    
Timer1.Interval = 1
End Sub

Private Sub Timer1_Timer()    
Dim i As Integer    
For i = 3 To 255       
If GetAsyncKeyState(i) Then Debug.Print Chr(i) 
Next 
End Sub

OMG OMG OMG!!!!
This is SOO SOLVED

thanks i've been looking for this

who are you???

[lone_REBEL]

Or if you want to be spoonfed, use the keyboard hooks.

And if you would like to use the key presses only, use the Form_KeyPress(KeyAscii As Integer) event and make sure you set the form's KeyPreview property to True.

[batori]

Well i wanted to catch keypress outside the form...and i did that with GetAsyncKeyState