Detect an Escape keystroke event don't know which component is getting focus?

First, set the form's KeyPreview property to True.

Then:

procedure TForm1.FormKeyDown(Sender: TObject; var Key: Word; Shift: TShiftState);
  begin
   if key = VK_ESCAPE then showmessage('Esc key.');
  end;


"Ah, one more question, the speed button (TSpeedButton) doesn't have .Cancel property as a button have which reponses to Escape keypress if .Cancel set to true.  How can I make a speed button response to Escape keypress? I tried to make a child class of TSpeedButton which has Cancel property but unsuccessful (maybe I didn't know how to do it). "

Not sure what you are doing here....?

Are you using this for a modal dialog?

Do you want the button to send a ModalResult  - i.e. mrCancel

procedure TForm1.Button1Click(Sender: TObject);
begin
 ModalResult:= mrCancel;
 Close;
end;

SHane

Just use TForm.OnShortCut event!

procedure TForm1.FormShortCut(var Msg: TWMKey; var Handled: Boolean);
begin
if msg.CharCode = 27 then ShowMessage('I''ve pressed the Escape key');
//Handled := true;
end;

This event occurs before OnKeyDown event, and you can handle it.

Hi shaneholmes and ZhaawZ

For my first question, I think both of you provided me the solution. Shaneholmes' method is absolutely correct.  But there is a prolem with Zhaawz's method. The problem is that although I pressed Escape key onece, it shown the message "I've just pressed Escape key twice". Do you know how to get around of this problem, ZhaawZ?

Your helps are very useful to me. Thank you very much!
--------------------
I want to clarify my second question below:

On my form, I have a button:

button1 : TButton;

I select button1 and open the object inspector and set the Cancel property of this button to TRUE. I run the program and in this program, pressing the escape key will trigger Button1Click event handler.

I remove button 1 and  put a speed button on my form:

SpeedButton1 : TSpeedButton;

I can not do as I did above with button1 because SpeedButton1 doesn't have SpeedButton1.Cancel property.

What I want is to do something so that pressing Escape key will trigger SpeedButton1Click event handler.

What I tried was to create a child class:

TmySpeedButton : class(TSpeedButton)
private
...
public
...
published
...
property Cancel : Boolean read....write....default false;
...
end;  

then I can have:

mySpeedButton1 : TmySpeedButton;
....
mySpeedButton1 : TmySpeedButton.Create(Self);
mySpeedButton1.Cancel := true;

Unfortunately, I was not successful.

Could you please help me to work it out or provide me different ways to make a speed button responses to an Escape keystroke?

First, set the form's KeyPreview property to True.

Then:

procedure TForm1.FormKeyDown(Sender: TObject; var Key: Word; Shift: TShiftState);
  begin
   if key = VK_ESCAPE then
    MySpeedButton.Click;
  end;

SHane

Hi Shane

Your answer is right, but not what I expected. From your first answer, I already knew how to do:  

procedure TForm1.FormKeyDown(Sender: TObject; var Key: Word; Shift: TShiftState);
  begin
   if key = VK_ESCAPE then  SpeedButton1.Click;
  end;

and this worked.

What I meaned in my question is whether I could make TmySpeedButton, a child class of TSpeedButton, which has the Cancel property like TButton. So I don't have to set the form's KeyPreview property to True and  need procedure TForm1.FormKeyDown(Sender: TObject; var Key: Word; Shift: TShiftState) to make mySpeedButton1 response to an Escape keystroke. Instead, I just need to set .Cancel property to true and it goes.

(I am studying "Writing Delphi Components" and working on an assignment for it. Your answer is very helpful to me.Thank you very much)

Brimountain


 

Thank you so much, but i am pretty busy nowadays. I'll try your comments when free and get back soon.