Defining accelerator keys

You can define accelerator keys for controls to allow users to change focus from one control to another. An accelerator key is sometimes referred to as a mnemonic access key.

Users press Alt followed by the accelerator key to use an accelerator. If the currently selected control is not an editable control (such as a SingleLineEdit, MultiLineEdit, ListBox, or DropDownListBox), users only have to press the accelerator key. They do not need to press the Alt key.

How you define accelerator keys depends on whether the type of control has displayed text associated with it. If there is no displayed text, you must define the accelerator key in the control itself and in a label that identifies the control.

To define an accelerator key for a CommandButton, CheckBox, or RadioButton:

Click the control to display the control’s properties in the Properties view.

In the Text box on the General page, precede the letter that you want to use as the accelerator key with an ampersand character (&).

When you perform your next action (such as tab to the next property or select the window or a control in the Layout view), the property is set and PowerBuilder displays an underline to indicate the accelerator key.

Displaying an ampersand If you want to display an ampersand character in the text of a control, type a double ampersand. The first ampersand acts as an escape character.

To define an accelerator key for a SingleLineEdit, MultiLineEdit, ListBox, or DropDownListBox:

Click the control to display the control’s properties in the Properties view.

In the General tab page, type the letter of the accelerator key in the Accelerator box.

For example, if the control contains a user’s name and you want to make Alt+N the accelerator for the control, type n in the Accelerator box.

At this point you have defined the accelerator key, but the user has no way of knowing it, so you need to label the control.

Place a StaticText control next to the control that was assigned the accelerator key.

Click the StaticText control to display its properties in the Properties view.

In the Text box on the General page, precede the letter that you want to use as the accelerator key with an ampersand character (&).

For example, if the StaticText control will display the label Name, type &Name in the Text box so that the letter N is underlined. Now your user knows that there is an accelerator key associated with the control.