Shortcuts for your Edit Menu!

Sometimes it's just easier to use the quick and dirty method. In my case, the Edit Menu is a good case in point. If you need to Cut, Copy, or Paste the contents of a text box, or if you need to Undo the last thing done, sometimes it can be a lot simpler to just let Windows do all the work for you.

To try this routine start Visual Basic and create a New Project consisting of only one form. Create an Edit Menu for the form. The Edit Menu should look like the following:

Caption	Name	Index	Shortcut
&Undo	mnuEdit	0	CTRL+U
Cu&t	mnuEdit	1	CTRL+T
& Copy	mnuEdit	2	CTRL+C
&Paste	mnuEdit	3	CTRL+P

Now, place the code behind the menu's click event procedure. Since the menu was set up as an array, only one event procedure is necessary. We can determine which menu item was selected by the Index argument passed to the procedure. The following routine sends the appropriate keystrokes to the form which Windows intercepts and handles accordingly. The code looks like the following:

Sub mnuEdit_Click (Index As Integer)
'   This routine is designed for a quick & dirty method for handling common edit menu functions.
    Select Case Index
        Case 0: SendKeys "%{BACKSPACE}"     ' Undo
        Case 1: SendKeys "+{DELETE}"        ' Cut
        Case 2: SendKeys "^{INSERT}"        ' Copy
        Case 3: SendKeys "+{INSERT}"        ' Paste
    End Select
End Sub

Now, let's place a couple of text boxes on the form. To test this procedure, run the program and enter some text into one of the text boxes. Select the text and choose Cut from the Edit Menu. Then select the second text box and choose Paste from the Edit Menu. Then select the first text box and choose Undo from the Edit Menu. Continue playing around with the menu to see how it all works.