Review Access Keys

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The Review Access Keys feature allows you to review the access keys of the controls (labels, checkboxes, etc.) of Forms, UserControls, Property Pages, etc. An access key is an underlined character in a caption (such as in "Show Using Windows Colors") that, when typing Alt + character, sets the focus to that control (in the case of checkboxes or option buttons), to the next editable control (in the case of labels, assuming that the TabIndex property is right) or executes the action (in the case of buttons). This feature checks that controls that should have an access key have it, and that an access key is not duplicated.

MZ-Tools offers the following ways to review access keys :

  • The Tools | MZ-Tools | Other Utilities | Review Access Keys menu: with this menu you can review the access keys of all the files of all the projects.
  • The Review Access Keys context menu of a project in the Project Explorer of Visual Basic: with this menu you can review the access keys of all the files of the selected project.
  • The Review Access Keys context menu of a file of type Form, UserControl, Property Page or User Document in the Project Explorer of Visual Basic: with this menu you can review the access keys of the selected file.
  • The Other Utilities | Review Access Keys menu on the MZ-Tools toolbar: with this menu you can review the access keys of all the files of all the projects.
  • The shortcut customized in the Options window, Shortcuts tab: with this shortcut you can review the access keys of all the files of all the projects.

The controls reviewed are the following:

  • CheckBoxes
  • OptionButtons
  • CommandButtons, if both the Cancel and Default properties are set to False.
  • Labels, if the control with the next TabIndex is an editable control.

If two controls belong to different Frame controls of an array, MZ-Tools does not detect duplicated access keys among them because it is assumed that frames of an array will not be shown simultaneously (typically they are shown as tabs in a TabStrip control).

The results are shown in a Results Window.

The review of the access keys can be launched automatically (or you can be asked) when you make the executable of a project, that is, clicking the File | Make Project... menu (this is customizable in the Options window, General tab). If a wrong access key is detected, the Results window keeps open (otherwise it is closed). You should fix the access keys errors before making the executable.

Remarks:

  • This feature is not available in the VBA version of MZ-Tools.
  • Ensure that the source code can be compiled without errors before running this feature.
  • The review is not launched when clicking the Make Project Group... menu (only when clicking the File | Make Project... menu) due to a problem with the Visual Basic IDE.

See Also:

Results Window

General Customization

Shortcuts Customization