Keyboard Accelerators
You've probably noticed that most menu commands contain an underlined letter. In Visual C++ .NET (and most other applications), pressing Alt+F,S activates the File Save menu command. This shortcut system is the standard Windows method of using the keyboard to choose commands from menus. If you look at an application's menu resource script (or the menu editor's properties dialog box), you'll see an ampersand (&) preceding the character that is underlined in each of the application's menu commands.Windows offers an alternative way of linking keystrokes to menu commands. The keyboard accelerator resource consists of a table of key combinations with associated command IDs. The Edit Copy command (with the command ID ID_EDIT_COPY), for example, might be linked to the Ctrl+C key combination through a keyboard accelerator entry. A keyboard accelerator entry does not have to be associated with a menu command. If no Edit Copy command were present, the Ctrl+C key combination would nevertheless activate the ID_EDIT_COPY command.
Note | If a keyboard accelerator is associated with a menu command or toolbar button, the accelerator key will be disabled when the command or button is disabled. |