UserControl Enhancements

The UserControl object now provides new features for better control handling.

PreKeyEvents Property

The UserControl object now provides the new Boolean property PreKeyEvents that enables corresponding new events PreKeyDown and PreKeyUp. These allow handling special keys like tab, arrows, etc without OS or COM hooks (for example, based on the IOleInPlaceActiveObject interface).

These work with all child windows inside the UserControl, including ones created by CreateWindowEx.

Access to Raw Message Data

You can access raw message data in the PreKeyDown/PreKeyUp event handlers with the new PreKeyWParam/PreKeyLParam and PreKeyTargetHwnd UserControl properties.

Example

Private Sub UserControl_Initialize()
    PreKeyEvents = True
End Sub

Private Sub UserControl_PreKeyDown(KeyCode As Integer, Shift As Integer)
    If KeyCode = vbKeyTab Then
        Debug.Print "Tab intercepted; lParam=" & CStr(PreKeyLParam)
    End If
End Sub