Pre Process Message Event
If you want to override editor keyboard shortcuts, use the KeyBindings property - that is the modern, supported way. The editor exposes a KeyBindingsManager instance on every control via editor.KeyBindings that lets you bind, rebind, override, disable, or re-enable any of the editor's built-in actions without writing low-level Win32 message handling.
The KeyBindingsManager API
The manager exposes these public methods:
| Bind(action, combo) | Maps a KeyBindingCombo to an EditorActionId. Throws if the combo is already bound to a different action. |
| Unbind(action) | Removes the current combo for an action (no-op if unbound). |
| GetBinding(action) | Returns the currently bound combo, or null. |
| AllBindings | Read-only snapshot of every action → combo pair currently registered. |
| Override(action, handler) | Replaces the editor's default behaviour for an action with your own Action delegate. Pass null to clear. |
| Disable(action) | Suppresses both default routing and any override; the keystroke is consumed silently. |
| Enable(action) | Reverses a previous Disable. |
| IsDisabled(action) | Returns true if the action has been disabled. |
A KeyBindingCombo is constructed from four arguments: ctrl, alt, shift (each a bool) and virtualKeyCode (an int Win32 VK code). WinForms callers can cast System.Windows.Forms.Keys directly to int.
Sample - rebind, disable, and add a combo
using SpiceLogic.HtmlEditor.Abstractions.KeyBindings;
using System.Windows.Forms;
// 1) Rebind Ctrl+B from Bold to "Save". First detach the action that
// currently owns Ctrl+B (if any), then bind Save to the freed combo.
editor.KeyBindings.Unbind(EditorActionId.Bold);
editor.KeyBindings.Bind(EditorActionId.Save, new KeyBindingCombo(ctrl: true, alt: false, shift: false, virtualKeyCode: (int)Keys.B));
// 2) Disable Ctrl+O (Open). The keystroke will be swallowed silently
// instead of opening the default Open File dialog.
editor.KeyBindings.Bind(EditorActionId.Open, new KeyBindingCombo(ctrl: true, alt: false, shift: false, virtualKeyCode: (int)Keys.O));
editor.KeyBindings.Disable(EditorActionId.Open);
// 3) Add a brand-new combo: Ctrl+Shift+H -> insert a hyperlink, but
// route through your own handler instead of the default dialog.
editor.KeyBindings.Bind(EditorActionId.HyperLinkInsert, new KeyBindingCombo(ctrl: true, alt: false, shift: true, virtualKeyCode: (int)Keys.H));
editor.KeyBindings.Override(EditorActionId.HyperLinkInsert, () =>
{
MessageBox.Show("Custom hyperlink workflow goes here.");
});Imports SpiceLogic.HtmlEditor.Abstractions.KeyBindings
Imports System.Windows.Forms
' 1) Rebind Ctrl+B from Bold to "Save". First detach the action that
' currently owns Ctrl+B (if any), then bind Save to the freed combo.
editor.KeyBindings.Unbind(EditorActionId.Bold)
editor.KeyBindings.Bind(EditorActionId.Save, New KeyBindingCombo(ctrl:=True, alt:=False, shift:=False, virtualKeyCode:=CInt(Keys.B)))
' 2) Disable Ctrl+O (Open). The keystroke will be swallowed silently
' instead of opening the default Open File dialog.
editor.KeyBindings.Bind(EditorActionId.Open, New KeyBindingCombo(ctrl:=True, alt:=False, shift:=False, virtualKeyCode:=CInt(Keys.O)))
editor.KeyBindings.Disable(EditorActionId.Open)
' 3) Add a brand-new combo: Ctrl+Shift+H -> insert a hyperlink, but
' route through your own handler instead of the default dialog.
editor.KeyBindings.Bind(EditorActionId.HyperLinkInsert, New KeyBindingCombo(ctrl:=True, alt:=False, shift:=True, virtualKeyCode:=CInt(Keys.H)))
editor.KeyBindings.Override(EditorActionId.HyperLinkInsert, Sub() MessageBox.Show("Custom hyperlink workflow goes here."))EditorActionId values
Every action you can bind. Names mirror the toolbar items they correspond to.
| New, Open, Save | Document lifecycle. |
| Cut, Copy, Paste, PasteFromMsWord, Print | Clipboard and printing. |
| Undo, Redo | Undo stack. |
| Bold, Italic, Underline, Subscript, Superscript, StrikeThrough | Inline character formatting. |
| Search, SpellCheck, FormatReset, BodyStyle | Find/replace, spell-check, clear-formatting, body style dialog. |
| HorizontalRule, OrderedList, UnOrderedList | Block-level inserts and lists. |
| AlignLeft, AlignCenter, AlignRight | Paragraph alignment. |
| Outdent, Indent | Paragraph indent. |
| TableInsert, ImageInsert, HyperLinkInsert, SymbolInsert, YouTubeVideoInsert | Element insert dialogs. |
| TextHighlightColor, FontForeColor | Colour pickers. |
Two combos are pre-bound on construction: Search → Ctrl+F (replaces IE's built-in Find dialog) and Paste → Ctrl+V (replaces IE's paste, which doubles style spans). Everything else is bind-able but unbound by default - browser/MSHTML shortcuts like Ctrl+B/I/U/Z/Y/A/C/X/P execute natively for performance.
Legacy - the PreProcessMessageEvent escape hatch
For low-level Win32 WM_KEYDOWN interception that KeyBindings does not cover (for example, intercepting non-character keys or peeking at raw message lParam bits), the editor still raises the PreProcessMessageEvent. This is an advanced hook - prefer KeyBindings whenever it suffices.
private const int WM_KEYDOWN = 0x100;
private const int VK_F1 = 0x70;
private void Editor_PreProcessMessageEvent(object sender, PreProcessMessageEventArg e)
{
// Intercept F1 inside the editor surface and show custom help.
if (e.Message.Msg == WM_KEYDOWN && e.Message.WParam.ToInt32() == VK_F1)
{
ShowMyHelpDialog();
e.Handled = true; // swallow the keystroke
}
}Private Const WM_KEYDOWN As Integer = &H100
Private Const VK_F1 As Integer = &H70
Private Sub Editor_PreProcessMessageEvent(sender As Object, e As PreProcessMessageEventArg)
' Intercept F1 inside the editor surface and show custom help.
If e.Message.Msg Is WM_KEYDOWN AndAlso e.Message.WParam.ToInt32() Is VK_F1 Then
ShowMyHelpDialog()
e.Handled = True ' swallow the keystroke
End If
End SubWire it up the usual way (editor.PreProcessMessageEvent += Editor_PreProcessMessageEvent;). Set e.Handled = true to suppress the default routing; leave it false to let the editor - and then KeyBindings - continue handling the message.