Customizing Keyboard Shortcuts

Every WpfHtmlEditor instance exposes a KeyBindings property of type KeyBindingsManager that lets you add, replace, override, or disable keyboard shortcuts at runtime without subclassing the control. The manager is the keyboard counterpart to ToolbarItemOverrider: where the overrider intercepts clicks on a built-in toolbar button, the key-bindings manager intercepts presses of the key combination mapped to a built-in editor action.

Default shortcut map

Out of the box only two shortcuts are pre-bound. Browser-native shortcuts handled by MSHTML (Ctrl+B, Ctrl+I, Ctrl+U, Ctrl+Z, Ctrl+Y, Ctrl+A, Ctrl+C, Ctrl+X, Ctrl+P) are intentionally not intercepted, because letting MSHTML execute them natively is faster and avoids round-tripping through the WPF dispatcher. Bind them yourself if you need to override their behaviour.

The EditorActionId enum

Every shortcut targets a value of EditorActionId. The enum mirrors the action set already exposed by ToolbarItemOverrider, so a key press routes through the same default-action pipeline as a toolbar click.

The full enum lives in SpiceLogic.HtmlEditor.Abstractions.KeyBindings.EditorActionId (35 members in total).

Constructing a KeyBindingCombo

A KeyBindingCombo is an immutable value object that captures the modifier flags and the Win32 virtual-key code of a keystroke. Because the type lives in the shared SpiceLogic.HtmlEditor.Abstractions assembly (which targets WinForms and WPF), it does not reference System.Windows.Input.Key directly. WPF callers convert a Key value to a virtual-key code with KeyInterop.VirtualKeyFromKey:

using System.Windows.Input;
using SpiceLogic.HtmlEditor.Abstractions.KeyBindings;

// Ctrl + Shift + B
KeyBindingCombo combo = new KeyBindingCombo(ctrl: true, alt: false, shift: true, virtualKeyCode: KeyInterop.VirtualKeyFromKey(Key.B));

Imports System.Windows.Input
Imports SpiceLogic.HtmlEditor.Abstractions.KeyBindings

' Ctrl + Shift + B
Dim combo As KeyBindingCombo = New KeyBindingCombo(ctrl:=True, alt:=False, shift:=True, virtualKeyCode:=KeyInterop.VirtualKeyFromKey(Key.B))

The constructor signature is KeyBindingCombo(bool ctrl, bool alt, bool shift, int virtualKeyCode). The four properties (Ctrl, Alt, Shift, VirtualKeyCode) are read-only, and value-equality is implemented across all four fields, so two combos that describe the same keystroke compare equal.

Common operations

The KeyBindingsManager exposes a small, deliberate API surface. The snippets below assume editor is your WpfHtmlEditor instance.

Bind - assign a combo to an action. Throws InvalidOperationException if the combo is already bound to a different action; rebinding the same action is allowed.

// Bind Ctrl+S to Save (no default ships for Save).
editor.KeyBindings.Bind(EditorActionId.Save, new KeyBindingCombo(ctrl: true, alt: false, shift: false, virtualKeyCode: KeyInterop.VirtualKeyFromKey(Key.S)));

' Bind Ctrl+S to Save (no default ships for Save).
editor.KeyBindings.Bind(EditorActionId.Save, New KeyBindingCombo(ctrl:=True, alt:=False, shift:=False, virtualKeyCode:=KeyInterop.VirtualKeyFromKey(Key.S)))

Unbind - remove the combo for an action (no-op if the action was unbound).

editor.KeyBindings.Unbind(EditorActionId.Search);

Override - replace the editor's default behaviour for an action with your own delegate. Pass null to clear an existing override.

// Replace the built-in Save handler with your own.
editor.KeyBindings.Override(EditorActionId.Save, () =>
{
    File.WriteAllText(currentFile, editor.BodyHtml);
    statusBar.Text = "Saved at " + DateTime.Now.ToString("T");
});
// Later, restore the default Save behaviour:
editor.KeyBindings.Override(EditorActionId.Save, null);

' Replace the built-in Save handler with your own.
editor.KeyBindings.Override(EditorActionId.Save, Sub()
                                                     File.WriteAllText(currentFile, editor.BodyHtml)
                                                     statusBar.Text = "Saved at " & DateTime.Now.ToString("T").ToString()

Disable / Enable - suppress an action without unbinding it. A disabled action still consumes the keystroke (so the browser's native shortcut, if any, does not fire either) but neither the default routing nor any registered override runs.

editor.KeyBindings.Disable(EditorActionId.Print);
// ...later...
if (editor.KeyBindings.IsDisabled(EditorActionId.Print))
    editor.KeyBindings.Enable(EditorActionId.Print);

editor.KeyBindings.Disable(EditorActionId.Print)
' ...later...
If editor.KeyBindings.IsDisabled(EditorActionId.Print) Then editor.KeyBindings.Enable(EditorActionId.Print)

GetBinding / AllBindings - introspect the current map. GetBinding returns null when the action is unbound; AllBindings exposes a read-only snapshot suitable for building a "Keyboard shortcuts" help dialog.

KeyBindingCombo current = editor.KeyBindings.GetBinding(EditorActionId.Search);
if (current != null)
    Debug.WriteLine("Search is on " + current); // e.g. "Ctrl+F"
foreach (var kvp in editor.KeyBindings.AllBindings)
    Console.WriteLine(kvp.Key + " => " + kvp.Value);

Dim current As KeyBindingCombo = editor.KeyBindings.GetBinding(EditorActionId.Search)
If current IsNot Nothing Then Debug.WriteLine("Search is on " & current.ToString()) ' e.g. "Ctrl+F"

For Each kvp In editor.KeyBindings.AllBindings
    Console.WriteLine(kvp.Key.ToString() & " => " + kvp.Value)
Next

Worked example

Suppose your application already uses Ctrl+B for a "Bookmark" command in its menu, so you want the editor's Bold action on Ctrl+Shift+B instead. At the same time, you want to fully disable Ctrl+O so it does not open anything inside the editor - your shell handles "Open" globally. Wire both up once after the editor loads:

using System.Windows.Input;
using SpiceLogic.HtmlEditor.Abstractions.KeyBindings;

private void Editor_Loaded(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
{
    // 1. Move Bold from Ctrl+B (the MSHTML default) to Ctrl+Shift+B.
    editor.KeyBindings.Bind(EditorActionId.Bold, new KeyBindingCombo(ctrl: true, alt: false, shift: true, virtualKeyCode: KeyInterop.VirtualKeyFromKey(Key.B)));
    // 2. Bind Ctrl+O to Open, then immediately disable it,
    //    so the keystroke is swallowed by the editor and the shell
    //    InputBinding for Ctrl+O fires uncontested.
    editor.KeyBindings.Bind(EditorActionId.Open, new KeyBindingCombo(ctrl: true, alt: false, shift: false, virtualKeyCode: KeyInterop.VirtualKeyFromKey(Key.O)));
    editor.KeyBindings.Disable(EditorActionId.Open);
}

Imports System.Windows.Input
Imports SpiceLogic.HtmlEditor.Abstractions.KeyBindings

End Sub

Private Sub Editor_Loaded(sender As Object, e As RoutedEventArgs)
    ' 1. Move Bold from Ctrl+B (the MSHTML default) to Ctrl+Shift+B.
    editor.KeyBindings.Bind(EditorActionId.Bold, New KeyBindingCombo(ctrl:=True, alt:=False, shift:=True, virtualKeyCode:=KeyInterop.VirtualKeyFromKey(Key.B)))
    ' 2. Bind Ctrl+O to Open, then immediately disable it,
    '    so the keystroke is swallowed by the editor and the shell
    '    InputBinding for Ctrl+O fires uncontested.
    editor.KeyBindings.Bind(EditorActionId.Open, New KeyBindingCombo(ctrl:=True, alt:=False, shift:=False, virtualKeyCode:=KeyInterop.VirtualKeyFromKey(Key.O)))
    editor.KeyBindings.Disable(EditorActionId.Open)

Because the manager is a plain CLR property on the control, you can reconfigure shortcuts at any point in the application lifecycle - for example, in response to a user-visible "Customize shortcuts" dialog - and the changes take effect on the very next key press. There is no need to rebuild, re-template, or recreate the WpfHtmlEditor instance.