How do I trap a two key sequence (Ctrl N)

Interesting article
http://www.codeproject.com/vb/net/mclhotkeynet.asp

Place this in your form...

Sample.....

   Protected Overrides Function ProcessCmdKey(ByRef msg As Message, ByVal keyData As Keys) As Boolean
        Const WM_KEYDOWN As Integer = &H100
        Const WM_SYSKEYDOWN As Integer = &H104

        If ((msg.Msg = WM_KEYDOWN) Or (msg.Msg = WM_SYSKEYDOWN)) Then
            Select Case (keyData)
                Case Keys.A To Keys.Z     '<--- Catch the Keys you want
                    MessageBox.Show("You pressed " & ChrW(keyData))  '<--- Then do something
                Case Keys.Right
                    Me.Text = "Right Arrow Captured"
                Case Keys.Left
                    Me.Text = "Left Arrow Captured"
                Case Keys.Down
                    Me.Text = "Down Arrow Captured"
                Case Keys.Up
                    Me.Text = "Up Arrow Captured"
                Case Keys.Tab
                    Me.Text = "Tab Key Captured"
                Case (Keys.Control Or Keys.N)
                    Me.Text = "<CTRL> + N Captured"
                Case (Keys.Alt Or Keys.Z)
                    Me.Text = "<ALT> + Z Captured"
            End Select
        End If

        Return MyBase.ProcessCmdKey(msg, keyData)
    End Function

Another hotkey example but it shows how to deal with multiple hotkeys:
https://www.experts-exchange.com/questions/21102359/Message-Loop.html

The sample from planocz will work only when your app has the focus...but that might be what you want.

An alternative to both of these approaches is to use a low level keyboard hook as demonstrated by iboutchkine in this post:
https://www.experts-exchange.com/questions/21258976/KeyPress-Help.html

~IM

Dhaest - Thank you for responding. The article was interesting and will prove useful in the future but is a little overkill for what I need right now.

Planocz - Thanks for the code, I had tried something similar with similar results. Using your code (which I did) I should see the message "<CTRL> + N Captured", but I don't.

Originally I thought there was a simple solution so I only assigned 125 points. The solution seems more involved so I'm raising it to 250.

Thanks
Ken

when you press the crtl N keys in a form sample it will chow up in the Form Title Header( on top of form)
This is to just show you that you captured those keys.

This was my attempt. I works if i press ctrl and then n, but not if I press both keys simultaneously.
 
  Private Sub Form1_KeyDown(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.Windows.Forms.KeyEventArgs) Handles MyBase.KeyDown
        If e.Control Then
            Me.CtlKeyActive = True
            Exit Sub
        End If
        If Me.CtlKeyActive = False Then
            Exit Sub
        End If
        If e.KeyData.ToString = "N" Then ' Or e.Shift Then
            MsgBox("UBH -CTRL-N")
        End If
        Me.CtlKeyActive = False
    End Sub

why do you need to press at same time. Most users can not do that correctly.

Sorry planocz, what I meant was that while holding the ctrl key down the user would then press the N key, similar to typeing an uppercase n, you hold down the shift key and press the n key.

Let me give you all some background because I might be approaching the core problem all wrong. I have a grid where I want the user to be able to change the value of a cell to "Null". Since they can't type in a 0 (this is an integer type column), i thought I would give them the option of highlighting the cell and pressing Ctrl-N.